Me
by KissKissCrush
Summary: Sequel to YOU. A series of unsettling disturbances in La Push spells trouble for quiet Forks citizen Aro Swan and his Police Chief husband when the Quileute wolf pack seeks his help in dealing with an evil presence in their town.
1. Prologue

AN~Already! This wrote _so fast_. *excited*

* * *

**Prologue**

I had always kind of thought that everyone had one great love and I had thought Renée Higginbotham was mine. I wouldn't have admitted it after she left but I really thought she would come back for much longer than I should have even after the divorce went through.

I guess I still couldn't say whether or not there is one love like that for everyone but I did know that if there was, mine was not Renée. Mine was a three-thousand-year-old vampire named Aro.

It was that time of year when the sunlight is patchy and unpredictable and he was keeping close to the edge of the house in the shade in case anyone was around. He was still as strange and as beautiful as when we met five years before while I had changed fairly dramatically. He insisted I was "perfect" but I knew the years of whatever human attractiveness I had would beginning declining sooner than later but he didn't like talking about it.

He paused when he reached me, looking me over with those unusual gold eyes before handing me the glass he was carrying.

"It tastes like dirt to me but I think I have the proportions correct . . ."

"It's always just right."

Actually, it was always just a little too sweet but it was worth the tiny hit to my pancreas to make him happy. He smiled and kissed my cheek sweetly. It was uncharacteristically chaste and I was about to ask him if he was okay when he quickly slipped his hand around my back and pinched me on the butt before walking away.

He could have been back to the house and inside in seconds but he walked all the way there like anyone else would have. Sometimes I thought he spent so much time pretending to be human that he forgot he was a vampire and he didn't need to do things slowly when only I was around.

He was almost to the door when a woman with bright red hair came flying out of the trees and pounced on him, knocking him to the ground. She was obviously a vampire herself because even though Aro was expert at feigning human reactions to normally insignificant physical stimuli, no one would have been able to tackle him that easily unless they were also supernaturally strong.

She was pinning him with her knee on his chest. I ran forward foolishly. It wasn't like I could protect him and this vampire was almost surely a human blood drinker on top of it. Aro had said that as far as he knew all of the "vegetarians" were gone.

She must have been a newborn as well if she was strong enough to hold him down like that because he hadn't pushed her off.

I called his name and she turned her head. When I saw her face I knew why he wasn't fighting her. It wasn't exceptional strength, it was was complete shock.

It was my daughter.

* * *

END NOTES: Yeah, I'm predictable. Sorry. Lemons in this story though! Does that make up for it?


	2. What the Hell Are You Doing Here

**1**

**Bella's POV**

Renesmee was grown enough for us to stay in one place now. I was pretty sure she would appear to age naturally from here allowing us to not just stay somewhere, but _know_ people for a few years.

We let her decide our new location as a birthday present and then immediately regretted it. The place she had chosen was straight into our past and we both said no. She then spent months relentlessly talking us into returning to the Olympic Peninsula so she could see Forks and La Push and meet Jacob's family.

They'd gone to La Push and left me to hunt and poke around Forks alone. With the wig and glasses, I was pretty sure no one would recognize me. Even without them, connecting the sullen teenage Bella Swan to the smooth, not-even-close-to-clumsy vampire I was now would have been a neat trick.

I wasn't going to contact Charlie, I just wanted to see him. I imagined that he was still with Sue so when I saw the slim, dark-haired figure exit the house I wasn't surprised. Except that this person was pale. _Really_ pale. I leapt into and tree above me and got closer, moving though the upper branches, following this strange person as they moved across the yard.

I knew it was a vampire by then and I would have panicked if their presence there wasn't so casual. Maybe Charlie had moved. I dropped back into the undergrowth and peered around a tree, feeling like an actor in a Disney channel show.

And there was Charlie. He looked maybe as differently as I had after my transformation into a vampire but he was obviously still human, I could hear his heartbeat from here. He was just older. He also wore glasses although I guessed his were more practical than my hipster prop frames. His clothing was drastically different as well. More stylish than anything I had ever known him to wear.

The vampire had its back to me but I could see it was male now. He handed Charlie a glass, they had a brief exchange and then he . . . kissed him. What in the bloody hell . . .

It was such a weird scene that I was too stunned to react to his identity when he turned back my way and he had almost reached the house before my surprise broke and I launched myself from the woods, more ready than I had ever been in either of my lives to kill something.

He didn't struggle at all when I pinned him. He just stared at me. He looked different as well. As different as a vampire can look anyway. The aura of infuriating smugness seemed gone or at least diminished making my action seem overblown. He looked . . . afraid. And his eyes were _gold_ . . .

"Aro!"

I turned my head and Charlie stopped.

"Bella?"

He came forward again but not to me. He crouched in the grass next to us and looked at my apparently willing captive first, then at me.

"Can you please get off of him?"

I did, acting out of disbelief more than actual desire to release him.

Aro stood and Charlie picked a piece of grass from his hair and asked if he was okay.

"Yes. Thank you, sweetheart. I'm quite all right."

_Sweetheart!?_

Charlie was staring at me oddly. He looked almost angry. He glanced at the sky and said, "Sun's coming out again, we should talk inside."

They walked away without waiting for a response from me and entered the house together.

I almost didn't follow them. I almost just turned and went straight back into the woods to try to forget whatever it was I'd just walked in on. Why the fuck was _Aro_ in my house, _kissing _my father and calling him_ sweetheart!_

They were in the kitchen, standing close together talking. I heard Aro say, "I really didn't know. I'm as shocked as you are. Likely more."

We all just stared at each other for a few seconds.

"I don't even know what to ask here," I admitted.

"I feel about the same," Charlie said.

"I guess I can start with why is _he_ here though."

"He lives here."

"I'd kind of assumed that._ Why_ does he live here?"

They looked at each other and then Charlie cleared his throat and said, "Married people usually live with each other."

"How are you married!?"

"Do you mean legally or . . .?"

"No! I mean how can you be married to _him?_ He's—do you have any idea who he _is?_ What he _did?_ What did he do to you . . .?"

"He remodeled my house and threw away all of my clothes."

Aro laughed shortly and then forced a serious face again. Was Charlie actually _joking_ right now?

"_How can you be laughing? How dare you fucking laugh in front of me!"_

I focused on Aro again because I was more sure about my feelings regarding him than Charlie just then.

"He's funny," Aro said simply and I just barely stopped myself from slapping him across his stupid smug little face.

"Oh, okay then! Glad you're having a good time you fucking monster!"

"Hey—"

Charlie tried to break in but I wasn't interested in hearing him defend Aro since he'd obviously been brainwashed somehow.

"Did you tell him? Huh? Did you tell him what you did to us?"

He wasn't laughing now. He wasn't smiling either, he looked nervous. He hadn't told him.

"No? Guess I should then! Dad, this weird fucking vampire you're somehow 'married' to is the leader of a coven of vampires called the Volt—"

"I know about that."

"Then . . . why are you with him?"

"Because he asked me to let his past stay in the past and I had no reason to insist otherwise."

"His _past_. Like trying to murder your granddaughter and oh, _actually murdering my husband!_ That past? That's what you're just letting stay behind him?"

He obviously didn't know this and the look of hurt on his face almost made me regret telling him.

Aro was mouthing something and shaking his head. He backed up a few steps and then turned and fled the room. Charlie looked at me, opened his mouth and then also shook his and followed Aro.

I went into the living room. It had been remodeled. The whole downstairs had that I could see. It was modern and clean, with updated versions of old style furniture and fixtures.

There were pictures everywhere. Ones of me and Renesmee but mostly of them. There was one of them standing on the steps of a building with a lot of other couples, all of them same gender, all of them looking ecstatic. Aro had his arms around Charlie's waist and was looking up at him with an uncomfortably worshipful look.

It would have been hard not to hear them arguing even if I was was human because they were both shouting.

"You said you didn't want to know!"

"No. I said that about knowing what you were but I asked you after and you sidestepped me."

"I just didn't know how to explain . . ."

"Well you should have tried harder to find a way! This isn't what I was expecting. This isn't something you can just gloss over, Aro!"

"It wasn't without cause. We thought she was an immortal child!"

"I don't know what that is!"

"It's a child that has been turned into a vampire. Yes, I know, it's horrid. That's why there was a law against it. We came to enforce that law which we believed had been knowingly broken. But we were given false information about her from an unreliable witness. It was obvious when we got here that she wasn't what we'd been told. We came prepared for a fight because the creators of immortal children almost never relinquish them willingly. I was ready to leave once we knew the truth but my brother—"

"Is Edward really dead?"

"I don't know. I didn't kill him nor give the order for him to be killed. They came ready to fight us, Charlie. They had a lot of powerful vampires on their side and it . . . just got out of hand."

There was a silence and I waited, a grim feeling of suspense enveloping me. I looked around at the pictures again. The whole thing made me dizzy and ill but it was undeniable that based on what I was seeing, however bizarre and upsetting it was to me, they had been happy before I got here.

"Charlie . . . Charlie, please."

Then a sound from outside and I looked out the window in time to see Aro streak off into the trees alone.

Charlie appeared ten minutes later, looking more upset than I had ever seen him, even after I was found out in the woods the time Edward had left me. I had sensed anger from him in the backyard and that was back now underneath the fear and pain.

"Bella, what the _hell_ are you doing here?"

"I . . . Jacob and Renesmee wanted to visit La Push. I just wanted to see if you were, you know, okay . . ."

He came into the living room and sat where he could easily see the yard through the front windows. I sat across from him. It was difficult to keep seeing Aro as a monster with his face everywhere looking so fucking _happy, _usually next to Charlie looking similar.

Unlike the Charlie in front of me who looked only worried.

"I'm sure he'll be fine . . ." I offered lamely.

"Oh, do you suddenly know him better than me? He told me you only met twice and while he obviously kept things from me, I don't believe he's ever outright lied to me so please do not try to tell me how he'll react to things because I _do_ know him. I also know exactly where he went and pretty close to how he's feeling right now."

He went back to staring out the window. We sat in silence for a few minutes. There wasn't really anything I could say. Suddenly I was the bad guy in my father's eyes and it was painful and disorienting. I stopped an apology. I was sorry for hurting Charlie but it enraged me to see Aro alive and well and perfectly content in a stolen life.

"Dad, how did this even happen? I mean, you're not gay. Or I thought you weren't, but I guess . . . are you?"

"It turns out sexuality isn't that simple."

What? Who _was_ this person? The Charlie I knew would never have said anything like that.

"I was looking for you actually when I found him at the Cullen's. He was pretty obviously messed up about something and he told me he had lost his family recently. I helped him out with some things and we just . . . I don't know. I haven't thought about it in a while but we both realized there was something there between us. Believe me you can't be nearly as confused as I was . . ."

"But how does this even work? Do people know about him?"

"Oh yeah, they love him. Hard not to. I gather you didn't experience it during your previous encounters with him but he's ridiculously charming. It's probably safe to say he secretly runs Forks. Or not so secretly since everyone pretty much knows that. He's on every board and committee he can get his hands on. He's not happy unless he's telling someone what to do and since _I_ don't always do everything he says he had to go find minions elsewhere. The only thing he doesn't really have control over is the school and I had to stop him from adopting a kid to get in on that in his quest for total Fork domination."

He'd become less tense during this monologue and was even smiling a little bit by the end of it. I started to ask another question but he was up out of his chair headed for the door. Aro had reappeared in the yard. I watched them meet in the middle of the front walk and embrace. It was like watching strangers. I didn't know them. Them together was not the same as them individually. I knew my father, Charlie Swan, Chief of Police of Forsk. And I knew Aro, the Volturi leader. But I didn't know Charlie, Aro's husband and I realized I didn't actually know Aro at all, just what I had been told by others. I did know that the person hugging my father wasn't close to the person I had always believed him to be though.

They were talking, not yelling anymore but still perfectly audible to me.

"I shouldn't have yelled."

"Yes, Dr. Greenstick would not have approved."

They both laughed. A private joke. Then serious again.

"You would have hated me . . ."

"I don't hate you now . . ."

"Maybe you should."

"Well, I don't. I still love you. But I'm not very smart."

"I love you. And if it is inferior intelligence that's keeping you with me then please stay dumb and stay with me."

"I'm not going anywhere, sweetie."

I looked away when they kissed. No kid wants to see their parent kissing anyone but this was so much more uncomfortable for numerous reasons.

They came into the living room, Aro trailing Charlie and looking anxious. They sat on the couch across from me. Aro folded his legs up under him and Charlie said, "Oh, _you're_ allowed to put your dirty feet on the furniture but if I did it I'd be living in my office for a week . . ."

Aro unfolded one leg and displayed a spotless bare sole to Charlie.

"How do you do that?"

"Dirt doesn't stick to me, I'm too beautiful."

"It's probably just afraid of being whined at."

Aro pushed him with his foot, shoving Charlie over onto his side.

God, they were _flirting._

Then Aro turned to me and the soft, playful demeanor he had displayed with Charlie evaporated as he addressed me.

"So, Bella. How is it that you're alive anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, _I_ was there until the end. Fighting alongside my family and then when it was over, I cleaned up a battlefield alone, burned my friends and family and everyone who didn't fall into the pit dear little Benjamin created but I don't recall seeing you and see, I assumed that if someone else _were_ alive, that I would have seen them."

"I went to look for Renesmee when Edward died . . ."

"So you convinced a lot of innocent people to help you protect your family and then you walked out when things went wrong for you leaving them, and _your own coven members_, to die for you . . ."

He was too smart and too slick for me. I saw reproach in Charlie's expression and I scrambled to defend myself, sure I was losing already.

"I had to go make sure she was okay . . ."

"But you had already provided safety for her in the form of your dog friend, yes? You must have trusted him enough to care for her even if you died to send her off like that."

I was stunned. He didn't miss anything. Even in the middle of that chaos, he'd seen my little plan in action. It sounded bad. Was it? I _had_ left and I wanted to believe I hadn't known how wrong that fight was going but it was a lie. No, I did not understand while we were gathering witnesses that a fight like that among vampires was a last-man-standing affair but I had to know it was going that way when I abandoned them to that awful fate.

"But none of it would have happened at all if you weren't after Alice," I countered, glad I finally had solid ground to accuse from again.

"Who told you that?"

"Carlisle and Edward said you wanted her and Eleazar said you did it all the time. That you accused people and then wiped out covens so you could recruit talented vampires."

I felt terrible saying this in front of Charlie, regardless of how I felt towards Aro at this point, Charlie apparently really loved him.

"While I won't deny that those accusations were rooted in fact, like all governments, evil rumors are far more popular than gentle ones. I also won't deny that I coveted special vampires because there is no reason to nor to pretend that I didn't look for opportunities to add them to my guard but I waited for those chances. I never knowingly followed a false lead but I will admit to never killing a gifted vampire even when I knew them to be guilty of an actual crime and that I used Chelsea's and Corin's powers to force them to stay with us against their natural will. Now, while I won't claim to have been a saint, I take offense to being called 'evil.' But even if I was by your definition, I believe, and I hope you are reasonable enough to as well, that change is possible and new chances should be offered along with that. And since I have done nothing more evil in the past five years than break Alan Wickman's tasteless little heart by stopping him from having those God-awful painted bear statues put all over town, I feel I've so far satisfied the beginnings of a reasonable probation . . ." He looked at Charlie and said, "So there you are, my love. My shocking secrets at last."

"Yeah, while I might not have known everything you did in detail, I'm not exactly flabbergasted to find out about your little evil empire. I've always known you were a greedy, spoiled brat, honey."

Aro's face went from anxious to almost goofy with happiness and I was afraid I was about to witness more horrifying physical affection but he just smiled and nudged Charlie's leg with his foot. Then he sighed and looked at me.

"I don't believe an apology of any kind will matter much to you and while I regret every life lost that day, I simply cannot regret coming to Forks . . ."

He didn't look at Charlie again but the implication was clear. Charlie didn't look at him either, he set his hand on Aro's ankle and a faint smile lifted his cheek. He was happy. He'd been maybe not unhappy but alone for a long time. I didn't want to destroy his happiness, I just wished it were happening with anyone but _him_. I had spent so much time hating Aro I didn't know if it were possible to ever feel anything else toward him. I had thought I would never see my father again because he didn't know what I was and it wasn't until today that I knew for sure that the Volturi were really gone.

But he did know now. More than just knew, he was _married to a vampire_. It hurt that it was now possible for me to have a relationship and be open with him about what I was but I couldn't see myself coming back here and being civil to the person who'd killed my husband.

"Well, I have a meeting," Aro said. He stood and went to the door where I watched him pull on a pair of long gloves. He came back and kissed Charlie on the top of his head after a sort of paranoid glance at me.

"If you see Melany, tell her I said, 'Thanks for nothing.'"

"Melany loves me, it wouldn't be a good idea to speak ill of me to her."

He looked outside and frowned.

"Will it never cloud over? I swear it's getting less rainy all the time . . ."

He retrieved a black umbrella from a bin by the door, opened it, and went outside.

"Um . . . doesn't anyone think that's weird?"

"They think he has a medical condition that makes his skin blister if he's exposed to sunlight. It's a real thing. Aro said it's actually part of human belief about vampire legends. All of his little girlfriends just love him more because of it. They think he's just this adorable little broken pet."

"Huh. That's kind of brilliant," I admitted reluctantly.

I was till trying to adjust to the change in Charlie's appearance as well as his life. I knew enough about clothing now to know that even though what he was wearing looked casual, they were expensive brands. His hair was not very different other than the color, it was much greyer now. It still looked messy but it was a carefully styled mess. The oddest thing was actually that he had no facial hair. I couldn't recall ever seeing him without a mustache. It made him look too . . . refined. He didn't look like Charlie anymore. He looked like what I guessed he was now: an older, sophisticated gay man. I was glad he didn't have a lisp at least. He still sounded like himself although his vocabulary had expanded and become slightly more formal, more like Aro's. His _husband's._

"I am happy to see you, Bells."

"You don't seem very happy to see me. You actually looked pretty pissed outside . . ."

"Well I thought you were dead. _Again_. And then it turns out you're not but I have been thinking you were this whole time. We all were. I finally had to file a missing person's report for your mom's sake and then we held a funeral about a year after that. It was pretty awful. Your mom—she didn't take it well."

My stomach turned cold with guilt imagining Renee standing over an empty grave with my name on it.

"Is she okay now?"

"No. She's dead."

My hands flew to my mouth. I had really never intended to have contact with my mom again but not seeing her and having her be dead were different things.

"How?"

"She drowned. It was ruled an accident but I don't know . . ."

"What do you mean?"

"What adult drowns in a backyard swimming pool?"

"Do you think someone—"

"No, I think she killed herself."

I felt like I was choking. No. She couldn't have ever done that. She wasn't that kind of person. She was happy. She loved her life.

"I don't think it was all you so don't think that's what I'm saying. She and Phil got a divorce the year after you disappeared. It was bad. She actually came to stay with us for a little while after."

"Wasn't that weird?"

"A little. But after she got used to it and I assured her she wasn't a 'beard', she loved Aro. I think he took her death harder than anyone. They were pretty close by then. He spent a lot of time out moping in that field he always goes when he's upset. The concept of loved ones being able to die so easily is difficult for him to accept. And the _way_ she died didn't help. I almost drowned in the Hoh River one time and he jumped in and pulled me out so he's a little traumatized about water, I think . . ."

"Oh my God!"

"Yeah. Look, as much and I'm angry with you, I'm really sorry to have to tell you all of that, Bells."

"Yeah. Guess me coming back here just caused a lot of problems . . ."

"Well I'm fine. We're fine."

I stood and paced around the room restlessly. I stopped in front of the wedding day picture.

"When did you get married?"

"End of 2008, right before the Mormons got it banned in California."

"I don't understand. If you've been together this long, why aren't you—"

"A vampire? Aro doesn't want to turn me yet, he wants me to 'have a human life.'"

"But that's stupid! It's not safe. I thought he was afraid of people dying . . ."

"He's more afraid I won't be able to keep the 'vegetarian' diet while I'm a newborn and that I will hate him for it. He always just says, 'I'll turn you before you start getting ugly.'"

"I'll turn you now."

"No."

"But dad, it's stupid for you to stay a human now that you know. It's not safe. You could die any time without giving one of us a chance to turn you."

"Bella, I'm married to a vampire, I don't need you to protect me. It seems unlikely that I will be able to stay human for very much longer and stay here. Aro isn't aging and while most of them think he just has magical gay man beauty genes, that won't last forever. But my husband and I will decide when that happens. I appreciate your concern though."

"I don't think I can get used to saying 'your husband' to you."

"Took me two years. But if it makes you feel more comfortable, you can refer to him as my wife. That's what everyone else does. Not _to_ us of course but Aro knows everything. He thinks it's hilarious. He's not overly concerned with his masculinity obviously."

We talked for a long time, I told him about our travels and he said he really wanted to see Renesmee but he would accept it if I didn't want her to come there because he wasn't going to hide all evidence of Aro for anyone.

Aro came back from his meeting just as it was getting dark. He was carrying the gloves and had the umbrella tucked under his arm. He looked like a collectible figurine in the most disturbing Precious Moments set ever.

He came into the room, shed his fake sun protection by the door and flopped—as much as a vampire can flop—onto the couch next to Charlie.

"How's the dictatorship?"

"Mired in idiocy as usual. Henry Whitlock was particularly tiresome today. And he called me a 'foreigner' when he thought I couldn't hear him. I should tell everyone he's a homosexual."

"Is he?"

"Yes, deeply."

"Well I don't think 'outing' someone here will have quite the same ostracizing effect that it may have once had."

"He would still hate it though. Why can't I just be a mean girl? It would be so much more fun than being nice to everyone all the time . . ."

"Because you need everyone to think you're wonderful."

"I am wonderful."

"Yup. You're something."

It was a little like watching a sitcom. They seemed to have completely forgotten I was there. Aro took Charlie's arm so he could duck under it and lean against him. Their interactions were so natural I actually had to focus to regain the same sense of alienation I had experienced a few hours ago.

"Well, I would invite you to stay to dinner, Bells but our diets don't really line up anymore," Charlie said.

"And I ate on the way home. So no step-daddy-daughter outing either," Aro said cheekily.

As if, you little punk.

"I should go anyway. I'm supposed to meet Jacob and Renesmee."

"Are you going to come back before you leave town?"

"I don't know."

Charlie stood and hugged me.

I went onto the porch and shut the door. I didn't actually have anywhere to go. I wasn't supposed to meet up with them until the next morning.

I thought about going to the Cullen's old house but then I heard a weird giggle come from the house I'd just left, followed by Aro saying, "God, I _love_ it when you do that," in a voice that suggested they weren't playing Scrabble and I decided the La Push treaty could fuck off. I was getting Jake and Ness and getting the hell away from Forks forever.

* * *

END NOTES: I know, it starts like _exactly_ the same as _More Than You Needed_.

Just let this be a lesson to you: If you ever get into a giant vampire fight with Aro, he will live through it, steal your life and marry someone you love. And that loved one won't be happy to see _you_ at all if you show up years later. So just don't even try it, man. Aro's like a Vegas Casino, he always wins.

" . . . stay dumb and stay with me." -That might me the cutest thing my Aro has ever said.

* * *

Oh, and Penny O., if you're reading this, you should know _exactly_ which "God-awful painted bear statues" I'm referring to. If only Aro had been in _our_ town to stop that mess from happening!


	3. The La Push Problem

_AN~Okay, so, weird thing happened while writing this story: every chapter is a different POV. Some people have more than one chapter but it kind of has the feel of a bunch of different people telling one story in turns rather than more than one plot line._

* * *

**2**

**Jacob's POV**

I would have brought her back here a lot sooner but her rapid aging would have made it difficult to stay for very long. We could get away with hanging out for awhile now. She looked about eighteen or nineteen and people wouldn't expect her to change very much over the next few years. I was more of a problem. I was supposed to be in my early twenties now but I still looked seventeen. It wasn't a problem in La Push because the my other remaining pack members hadn't changed either. I guess I had expected that they would stop phasing now that there were no vampires around. At least, we thought there weren't. I didn't know what had happened after we ran but I was sure Bella wouldn't have followed especially without Edward if there were anyone left to go back to.

Leah had arrived soon after we did. I heard their voices start in my head as soon as we crossed the treaty line and knew that there were five shape-shifters currently living on the reservation. Leah was Alpha now and had four others with her. Quil was the only one I knew, the others were younger boys who hadn't changed yet when we were here.

Leah didn't say much and I felt like she had started struggling to control her thoughts as soon as she heard mine join theirs. I couldn't hear her as well as I used to be able to and her thoughts weren't clear.

Dad loved Renesmee of course, it would be hard not to. Leah wasn't rude but she wasn't friendly either. Ness's status as a half-breed was offensive to her and I was surprised she hadn't demanded we leave immediately. I think it was respect for the imprinting rather than maturity on her part though. Leah wasn't a bad person but she was also still alone after all this time and her bitterness was hard to hide even if the rest of her thoughts were cloudy.

Dad was in the middle of telling Renesmee very elaborated on stories about me when Leah jumped up from the table, knocking her chair backwards onto the ground.

"There's a vampire."

I inhaled and waved her back down.

"It's just Bella, Leah. Chill out."

"She's not allowed here."

"It's_ Bella_," Dad echoed but Leah didn't look any less indignant.

"Come on, Leah. What are you planning on doing? Attacking her in my house? Her daughter's here."

"Did you tell her she could cross the line because you don't have the author—"

"No. I didn't. But it shouldn't matter. If she came here, she has a good reason. If she's dragging a human corpse behind her, you can have at it, otherwise, seriously, just leave it alone."

Nessie made a face at my human corpse imagery but didn't say anything.

Bella knocked and then actually waited until I opened the door for her. She looked . . . insane. Like she was angry but also like she'd just survived a near death experience and couldn't believe she was alive.

She greeted my dad sweetly and he nodded to her. Then her and Leah had a tiny staring contest which Bella shockingly diverted by apologizing for crossing the line and saying she wouldn't stay long.

Dad insisted she sit down and jokingly offered her something to drink, a remark that was met with a sour face from Leah.

"Are you okay, Mom?"

"I'm fine. It was just weird being back in Forks."

"You're a really bad liar, Bella."

"Shut up, Jacob."

"So you don't want us to tell you what's going on then?"

"Like what?"

She sounded exasperated and not interested in hearing about anything at all.

"Do you want to tell her, Leah?"

"Why would _I_ want to? She's an outsider. And a _vampire_, we shouldn't be telling her anything!"

"And this has nothing to do with vampires or wolves so telling her doesn't violate any of our rules."

Leah didn't looked very convinced but I knew she was considering it. Even though I couldn't hear her thoughts in human form, once you _had_ been able to hear a person's thoughts in such a raw way, it made it them sort of transparent to you afterwards. I remembered feeling sort of sympathetic for Edward after I had realized that. He saw everyone like that. It must have been uncomfortable. I could tell she was more worried than she wanted to admit.

"She might know something that could help you . . ." I coaxed.

"How would she know anything? She only knew about all of this stuff when we did."

"Yeah, but she knew a lot of vampires who were older."

She kept her grumpy face but I saw her subtly relent in the way her mouth dropped slightly at the corners.

"Fine. Something's been happening. It's been going on for a while and we're not really sure what to do about it or even what it is."

"Okay . . . can you be less vague about it?"

She still didn't sound interested but she was willing to listen.

"There's been some disturbances for about six months. We don't know if anything has been going on in Forks exactly but there have been a few reported incidents here. Probably more than we've heard about because no one wants to talk about it . . ."

She glanced at Renesmee. I had heard them discussing the scary details while we were running through the trees to my dad's and I could tell she was reluctant to saying anything in front of Ness. She still looked so sweet and young it was easy to see why she felt that way.

"It's okay. She's a big girl."

"People have been being . . . attacked in their houses at night. While they're asleep."

"Attacked how?"

"Well the ones we know about had scratches and bite marks on them."

She glanced at Nessie again.

"And one girl was pregnant for a few weeks."

"So like a ra—guy is attacking women?"

"It's not just women. At least one man too. They all said they'd been . . . _used_ by something."

"But you don't think a person is doing this?"

"No. They were all in locked houses and nothing was broken. Also the injuries are . . . weird."

"Weird how?"

"They look sort of purpley and they heal funny. Like the scars are bigger than they should be for superficial wounds like that."

"What happened to the pregnant girl?"

"She miscarried. But the baby—er, _fetus_ wasn't right. I don't know what was wrong because her mom wouldn't tell me but she was terrified talking to me."

"I don't know about anything that could do that, I'm sorry."

"I wouldn't be sorry to not know about something like this."

"I meant I was sorry I couldn't help you."

"Right. Well, we've been patrolling at night trying to catch it but so far nothing. I've actually got to go out and start my shift soon."

"Do you want me to help out, Leah? Bella could too, right Bella?" I said.

"Uh . . . sure. I'll keep an eye out. I mean, I wasn't planning to stay on Quileute land though . . ."

"Maybe you can go investigate in Forks?"

"That would actually be really helpful," Leah said and the worry I'd picked up out of her mind told me she was nervous about her lack of data on Forks. Nervous enough to become allies with a vampire.

"I wasn't planning on going back to Forks either, actually."

"Oh. Um, well, we were still planning to stick around for a bit here . . ."

"Right. Well, I don't want Renesmee staying here alone at night. Either you're with her at all times or I come back if you're patrolling, okay?"

"Sure. Of course. So you'll stay?"

"Yeah. I guess I don't have a choice."

"Cool."

"If you're going back to Forks, Bella, you really should go talk to Aro Swan. Leah hasn't wanted to do it but I really think it's your best bet for information about something like this," Dad said.

"Who's Aro Swan?"

I was utterly confused but Bella obviously wasn't.

"That's my dad's . . . spouse."

"You saw Grandpa? Can we go see him?"

Nessie was elated. Bella looked like she was going to spontaneously combust.

"Don't like the new stepmom, huh?"

Teasing Bella had not lost its appeal in any way over the years but I knew when I said it that whatever this was, it was deeper than just the usual Bella tantrum. There was a crunching noise and then she tugged her fingertips out of the wood table top, leaving deep splintered holes behind.

"Sorry, Billy."

"It's all right, extra pale face. And I'm not even going to call you a hypocrite . . ."

"It's not the same thing! You don't know! Why hasn't the pack done something about this anyway?"

She turned on Leah accusingly but Dad was the one who answered.

"The treaty isn't being violated, Bella. We can't do anything about it. We don't mix in vampire business unless we have to."

"So! What about everything that happened? I_ know_ wolves died that day."

"Wolves that chose to get mixed up in vampire business."

"That's insane! This is insane! I can't believe you're just letting him walk around Forks like he owns the damned place!"

"Letting _who_, Bella?"

"Him! My dad's 'husband.' He's a vampire!"

"Wait. Aro? Not like that Ital—"

"No. Not in front of Renesmee."

"Um, I know I'm only chronologically like six years old, Mom, but I'm not dumb."

"Fine. You want to know? Yeah, it's _that_ Aro. That stupid Volturi piece of—"

"Whoa. Um, I didn't know Charlie was um, into that."

"He's not! Or that's what he says. It's 'just him.' I'm still not convinced Aro didn't do something to him . . ."

Renesmee was quiet, staring at the table. I had no idea what she was thinking. Sometimes it seemed like she could tap into this vampire thing and sit perfectly still without even blinking for long periods and her face was totally unreadable.

Bella was picking at the edges of the holes she'd made in the wood and looking pissed off. I elbowed Ness gently and asked if she was okay. I wasn't sure exactly how much she remembered about the day we fled Forks and I didn't think that she knew exactly why the Volturi had come but she did know that they were on another side than us. And she loved her grandpa a lot. I felt terrible but I didn't know what to say to her. She nodded that she was okay but it was obvious she wasn't.

Bella stood, passing her hand over the wounds in the table like maybe she could just smooth them out.

"Guess I'll go on back to Forks now and look around for a nightmare creature. That sounds like tons of fun."

Nessie jumped up at that.

"I want to see Grandpa."

"No."

"That's not fair. You said you weren't going to see him either but you did."

"I don't want you near him."

"Who? Grandpa or Aro?"

"Aro, of course. I wouldn't want you to not see Grandpa but he's made it clear he's not going to tell his _husband_ to go away for a visit so . . ."

"I don't care."

"Well, you should, Renesmee! He destroyed our lives!"

"I want to see Grandpa."

"Fine. Go. Go see him."

Nessie stood there looking upset for a minute and then said, "I don't think Grandpa would marry an evil person."

"People make mistakes."

"Can you take me back with you?"

"Yes. But I'm not going inside."

"That's fine. No, stay here, Jake. It's already dark so we should stay in town probably at this point anyway but I'll be fine with Mom. Obviously she can take care of us. Especially if the monster should turn out to be another villainous piece of furniture that needs punishing or similar nefarious inanimate object . . ."

I laughed. Everyone but Bella did. Even Leah smirked a little. Everything about Renesmee was basically delightful. She was beautiful, of course, but also kind and witty and intimidatingly intelligent but she never used it to make other people feel stupid. My feelings for her hadn't changed the way I had expected, and almost dreaded, to romantic yet. There was no guarantee they would and I wondered what life would be like to be imprinted on a person I wasn't in love with. Or to not be imprinted at all, like Leah. I was glad she couldn't hear me thinking that because I knew she would be incensed at anyone pitying her. I didn't want Leah to be my enemy. As far as La Push was concerned, Leah was my Alpha and I would try to respect that.

Renesmee hugged me and then followed Bella outside where she did a running jump off the porch onto Bella's back. Bella huffed loudly, irritated and Nessie yelled, "Giddy up, pretty horsie!" I heard her melodious laughter drift back to us as they disappeared into the trees together. I felt the same uncomfortable sensation I always felt when we were separated. It wasn't pain but that was the closest thing to it. It was like being compressed. I knew Bella would protect her but it was always hard to let that responsibility pass from my hands.

I shook myself and then turned back to the house to find out exactly what Leah needed me to do about her sex demon problem.

* * *

END NOTES: I thought I would hate writing about Renesmee because she's so _sweet and flimsy_ in canon but no, **_I love her_**. She's such a sassafras! Poor Bella. She's just been running around being sad for five years with two people who think it's hilarious to torment her. Aw.


	4. My Two Grandpas

_AN~I'm soooo butthurt about the fun-killing the _Twilight_ tumblr inflicted on my world this morning. "We have a HUGE announcement tomorrow guyz! . . . a boxed set of the movies. Ta da!" My fault for hoping for another book, I guess._

* * *

**3**

**Renesmee's POV**

She dropped me in the yard. I think she may have let me down a little rougher than necessary and I rolled my eyes behind her back. She jumped up into a tree and said, "I'll wait here for you."

"Sound good, boss. I'll let you know if I need help with a vicious lamp or something."

She scowled. Sometimes, a lot of the time, I felt older than my mom. The fact that we looked around the same age now, and I would probably end up looking a little older, didn't help. My relationship with her was similar to how she had described her relationship with her own mother. Like _she_ was the mother. I had thought many times about trying to talk her into going to see my grandmother who I had never met but I knew it would have been too hard to explain about me. She didn't even know I existed. No one did, really. I was a phantom to nearly everyone from my mother's mortal life.

Except my grandpa. I didn't know how he would react to me since I wasn't the little girl he knew anymore but I hoped that since he understood the vampire world now that it would be easier.

There was a small series of notches on the railing at the edge of the porch from where he had started marking my height as soon as I could stand. There were far more of them then there should have been for the short time in which we'd been together. He'd known there was something.

I knocked and there was a ten second pause before the door opened revealing my mother's reason for not wanting to enter the house again. I had only seen him once before and he didn't really look all that much like the person in my memory. He had gold eyes like Mom and Dad and he wasn't wearing that scary military outfit. He looked . . . small.

And stunned. His eyes traveled over me quickly and then he whispered my name. He'd recognized me easily, would my grandfather?

"Charlie!"

He turned to yell back into the house and then turned back at me. He stared at me like that until another figure appeared in the doorway. It only took him a second and he was on the porch hugging me. He knew me right away. I was relieved and it made me realize how worried I had been that he'd forgotten me. We were so close before.

He pulled away to look at my face and then embraced me again. I was surprised that he didn't try to hide the fact that he was crying. Most men would have. I thought that the man I remembered would have but it was obvious that he had changed as well, the evidence there in the very anxious-looking vampire standing awkwardly in the doorway, watching us.

He pulled me into the house with him and Aro shut the door behind us. Aro looked like he was going to edge out of the room but Grandpa caught him and told him to stay even though Aro was shaking his head and looking like he wanted to go outside and jump into a tree like Mom.

"This is your house, too."

"I can't, Charlie. Please . . ."

Grandpa let go of him but Aro stayed, anchored with a look.

"I won't have separate lives. It's your choice to go but I want you to stay."

He turned back to me then.

"Hey, someone I can feed! Are you hungry?"

"Nah, I'll be good with just a glass of whiskey."

It took a few seconds for him to figure out I was joking and his face during that time was priceless.

"We ate with Jake's dad in La Push so I'm fine. Unless you have tea."

"We do, actually. Aro's old lady friends are crazy for tea."

"I'll make it," Aro said quickly, obviously relieved to have an excuse to abandon this uncomfortable scene. "What kind do you like?"

"Um . . . Earl Grey?"

He disappeared into the kitchen and Grandpa tugged me into the living room with him, making me sit on the couch. I looked around at the room which was very different than I remembered. It was beautiful. Mom must have hated it.

"I wasn't sure if she'd let you come . . ."

"Let me? Pfft. Once I'd found out she had seen you, she wasn't going to stop _me_ from seeing you."

"Where is she?"

"Outside. _Sulking_ in a conifer."

He smiled and then said to be nice because he knew she'd be able to hear us.

"I'm glad you're here. I wish you could stay."

"Jacob and I were planning on staying for awhile actually."

"You and Jacob. Are you, uh—?"

This question made me feel awkward but not because I thought he was prying. It was because I knew Jacob's feelings for me were not the same as my feelings for him. Jacob loved me, but he wasn't in love with me. I guessed I didn't actually know enough about love to say I was in love with him either but I felt something more than just the pull of his imprinting when we were together.

"Not like that. Um, how much do you know about the wolves?"

"Only what Aro has told me, which is as much as the Cullen's knew."

"So you know about imprinting?"

"A little bit."

"Well, that's what it's like with me and Jacob. He's driven to protect me, to take care of me at all cost."

Against his will. Where would he be if it wasn't for being compelled to watch over me? Prisoner to an ancient magic he'd never agreed to be a part of . . .

"Oh. Well a giant wolf is a pretty good body guard, I guess."

"He's the best."

"I'm glad you came here even if it was difficult."

"I've been wanting to come back for years, it wasn't difficult for me."

"I meant because of Aro . . ."

"Right. I don't actually know how to feel about that. I mean, I only met him once for just a second and I didn't really understand what was happening at the time. He was sweet to me but I'm sure there are reasons Mom hates him. I really don't know what happened back here after Jacob and I ran . . ."

Aro came back then with a tray that he set on a little table next to the couch. Then he went to a chair across from us and sat, looking slouchier than I had ever seen a vampire look. It was quiet for a few beats and then he exhaled a sigh as heavy as his posture and spoke.

"I assumed someone would surface someday. I didn't wish for anyone in particular, that felt greedy but I knew that almost anyone showing up here could end my life as it is . . ."

"Aro, everything's fine."

"It's not fine, Charlie. It's time for me to pay for my crimes. I just wish you weren't also paying."

"I"m not here to hurt anyone . . ." I said.

"Maybe you should be. I don't know exactly what your mother told you about us or why you left or why your family did not follow you but I will tell you that the reason is me. I destroyed your life, Renesmee Cullen. I apologize, Charlie. I really cannot do this . . ."

Then he was gone with vampiric speed before Grandpa could stop him.

"Everything was so normal this morning . . ." he said tiredly.

"How should I feel about this, Grandpa?"

"I can't tell you how to feel, Ness."

"Then what am I supposed to do? Mom hates him and, I assume, _you_ love him so how am I supposed to have both of you in my life?"

"I don't know. I would say I could tell you the whole story but I don't know it either. I think Aro's the only one who knows the whole story."

"Then tell me what you do know."

"Okay. Um, so there used to be this coven in Italy called the Volturi, do you know about that?"

"Sort of. They were like royalty Mom said."

He snorted.

"Royalty. Yeah, that explains why he's so imperious I guess."

"They came here and we all met up in this big field way out in the middle of the woods."

"Oh God, a field. _That's_ where he goes. He took me there once but he didn't tell me what it was. He just said he goes there 'to think' sometimes. So do you know why they came here?"

"Nobody said it to me directly but I knew it must have been about me."

"Yeah. Aro said they were told by someone that you were an 'immortal child.' Like a kid that had been turned into, you know . . ."

"A baby vampire! I would have been _adorable!_"

"You were adorable. Anyway, making vampire children was against the law, I guess. They were too hard to control."

"So they came here . . ."

"To kill you."

"But then they met me and saw I _wasn't_ . . ."

"That's what Aro said."

"Then what?"

"I don't know."

"Then they attacked us anyway and killed everyone we love."

Mom was standing in the archway leading into the living room. She still looked pissed but also defeated.

"That doesn't make sense. Why would they attack us when they knew I wasn't immortal?"

"Because that was just an excuse to come here. They were actually after your aunt Alice because of her future sight. Aro wanted to force her to go back to Italy with them."

"So you were fighting over Alice?"

"I guess when it comes down to it, yeah."

"But how did it happen? I mean, who started it?"

"Aro did . . . or your grandpa Cullen and he did, I guess. Carlisle tried to stop them from taking her. It was impulsive. Not like him to react like that. He was always so calm. And he didn't even have any powers, he just ran at them with no defense at all and without saying anything to any of us. It was insane. He and Aro fought and Carlisle lost. It was over after that. All of us sort of charged in when he died and it just . . . got out of hand."

She said these last words like they were a confusing revelation, like she was repeating the answer to a complicated math problem that she'd heard before but hadn't understood then because she didn't understand the equation yet.

"So everyone is dead then, Mom?"

She looked at me for a second and then came and sat on the floor at my feet. She put her hand on my leg.

"Baby, did you think your dad might be here alive still?"

"No, I think I knew. Hearing it is different though . . ."

"Well we left before the fighting ended so I guess I don't actually know for sure. But Aro said he was alone at the end."

"So he killed everyone?"

"I fought for my life like everyone else did. If you need an account of who killed who, I can't tell you that. I can't even tell you who I killed. I watched my coven die. My brothers, my wife and all in the wake of murdering one of my closest friends. I should have subdued him but discipline, not diplomacy was our _modus operandi_ at the time, unfortunately for everyone there that day. Many people ran when it became clear that that fight would likely end in their deaths. I don't remember a moment when I knew it was over. There were ten vampires around, all fighting and then there were five and then none and I was alone. I saw figures disappearing into the trees, but I couldn't tell you their identities. I can only tell you who I found afterwards when I went about doing what I have always done: concealing the evidence of vampires from humans by clearing away the evidence of the massacre. I can give you a list if you want it."

Everyone was silent after he spoke. Maybe it was better not to know. It wouldn't change anything here but . . .

"I want to know," Mom said. "If you don't want to know, Renesmee, we can talk somewhere else."

"I'm okay."

Aro sat in the same chair he'd vacated a few minutes before but he was more composed now.

"Many people fell into that pit as you know, Bella, and I can't say for certain everyone who did. I know I saw Kate and Eleazar fall. Also . . . um, Emmett and a few of my own guard. Among the dead I found one of the Romanians, Zafrina and her sister, the Irish coven except for Maggie, Esme, Jasper, Jane and Alec, Caius and his wife, my wife, Marcus, six of our witnesses, Felix and Chelsea, Demetri, the rest of the Denalis, some wolves but I couldn't possibly identify them and what looked like a human only wasn't . . ."

"There was a human out there?"

"No. Not a human. It had blood but it wasn't . . . I think that he may have been someone like you, Renesmee. A human vampire hybrid. I found another with a skin tone similar to his so I assume they were together but I saw no evidence of them in Edward's thoughts that day."

"I don't know who that was either . . . we went looking for more people like Renesmee but we never found any."

"Hmm. Well, that is a mystery."

"So with those people dead that leaves . . ."

"Revolutionary Garrett . . ."

" . . . Alice . . ."

" . . . the Egyptians . . ."

" . . . Rosalie . . . "

"And Renata. I don't like to think that she would have deserted me but I don't suppose she owned me anything . . ."

And Edward. My dad. It hung there unspoken. No one knew if he was alive.

The feeling in the room was funeral, somber. I had seen movies and documentaries about the Jewish holocaust and the listing of names felt like that to me. A roll call of unnecessary death. Of people who shared my heritage, now gone forever and remembered by name and face only to a few.

Mom was quiet, leaning against the couch between me and Grandpa. Aro was staring at his hands, pressing his fingertips together. I was glad Mom didn't have the ability to read minds because I felt sorry for him. Grandpa was watching him sadly as well.

Not much more was said that night, I asked to stay over and the request was accepted immediately. Grandpa said he'd take the next day off so we could spend time together. Mom looked sullen and fidgety as we all got up to go to bed.

"Come on." I pulled at her arm pointlessly but she rose from the floor anyway. "We'll have a slumber party."

She followed me upstairs looking grumpy. I heard a short exchange between Grandpa and Aro as we went.

"I don't want you to go out there anymore."

"Go out where?"

"Aro, don't. You know where. That field. If I had known what it was, I would have made you stop before."

"My family is there, Charlie . . ."

I knew if I had heard this, Mom had too. I turned to see her face and it was set in a blank expression. I didn't know how I felt about Aro but I could see that she was struggling with her feelings about the whole thing now. Placing blame probably felt good but it wasn't as clear cut as that. She hadn't refuted anything he'd said so I assumed the account was sound. I wanted to hug her but I knew it would upset her if she thought I was pitying her.

Grandpa joined us a minute later, leaning on the edge of the doorway to watch us as we surveyed the room. It looked exactly as it had before when I slept over back then. Same walls and books and bedspread.

"I told Aro him could do whatever he wanted with this room but he wouldn't touch it. He said it didn't belong to either of us and he was done taking things that didn't belong to him."

He glanced at Mom as he said this. I knew he was trying to make her see Aro differently. She stayed stony-faced though and my heart ached for him. I went back downstairs to retrieve my tea which was lukewarm now but still good. Aro was in the dining room, sitting at the table with a laptop computer. I sat next to him and stirred my cooling tea absentmindly.

"So. Are you evil then or what?"

He looked a little shocked at my bluntness but not angry.

"I don't know what 'evil' is. I think it means different things to everyone."

"Okay, well, do you intentionally hurt people?"

"The last time I came close to physically harming another person was in self-defense. Or Charlie-defense actually as they could not have harmed me. I've attempted to avoid psychological harm as well but just me being here has hurt Bella a great deal . . ."

"She needs an enemy. It makes it easier to deal with being nomadic. It's not in her nature to move around so much. It's not such a big deal for Jacob and me but Mom likes stability. She hasn't been very happy since we left here. I didn't see it clearly until I was older but I think that having the facts about that fight will maybe help her to move on from it."

"I hope that you are right. Bella hurting hurts Charlie and that's incredibly difficult for me. I would leave if I didn't think it would only hurt him more . . ."

He was tapping the pads of his fingers lightly against the keys, making a small clicking sound. He wasn't typing, it was a nervous action like biting your fingernails.

"Alright, well, maybe I will feel differently later on, but for now, Grandpa loving you is good enough for me."

My words didn't seem to sooth him though. He looked sadder, more guilty. I stood and picked up my cup.

"Welp, been a long day for me so I'll see you tomorrow, Gramps."

He smiled oddly at this title.

"Thank you, Renesmee. And I don't wish for you to take sides against your mother. She is well justified in her anger. The fault lies mainly with me and she would be in the right to continue to hate me for as long as she or I live."

"Sure. And you know, be careful on the internet there. Scammers love tricking the elderly out of their retirement funds."

He laughed self-consciously and I went back upstairs. Mom was standing at the window. She turned on me when I shut the door, looking confused and angry.

"I don't want you talking to him about me."

"Well I'm going to talk to him because he's married to Grandpa and I'm a guest in their house."

"You don't have to talk about me though."

"I like talking about you. You're my mommy."

I saw her soften against her will. I had stopped calling her "Mommy" as I got older and wanted to seem older but I shamelessly used it for manipulation purposes now. I went to the window and slipped my arm around her waist. The darkness outside had transformed the window into into a dark mirror which reflected us and our nearly twin-like appearance in its face.

"So did you sneak Dad up here when you were dating?"

She laughed shortly.

"He snuck himself up."

"Can't trust vampires."

"That's what he always said . . ."

"Do you remember when you met?"

"Why are you asking about this now?"

"Because we're having a slumber party and we're supposed to talk about boys. I saw it on _Gilmore Girls_."

She sat on the bed and picked at the fraying purple velvet flowers on the comforter.

"It's one of my clearest human memories. It was in the cafeteria at the high school—"

"Ooo, sexy."

"—I saw your aunts and uncles first, actually. First Emmett and Rosalie and then Alice and Jasper. Your dad came in last. I think I stared at him pretty stupidly but everyone did. He was too beautiful to be real."

"Aw. And then you seduced him with your feminine wiles . . ."

"No. I couldn't have seduced anyone. I was totally and clumsy and socially awkward."

"You're still clumsy and socially awkward."

"Thanks. I didn't know why he liked me honestly and I still don't. He was perfect and I was just some boring human. Later I found about 'la tua cantante' though."

"What's that?"

"Um, it's Italian. That's what Aro called it when I met him in Italy—"

"You went to Italy!? I want to go!"

"Well maybe your new 'grandpa' will take you," she said sarcastically.

"That sounds like fun," I said bouncing onto the bed behind her. "I wonder if Grandpa's gone? We should fake me up a birth certificate so I can get a passport."

"I was joking."

"I wasn't. So what's this 'singer' thing about now?"

"Who told you about that?"

I laughed at her. I didn't speak other languages around her and Jacob often because she only spoke English and he spoke English and Quileute so she always seemed to forget that I spoke more languages than she even knew the names of.

"_You_ did, Dork. I speak Italian. That thing you said means—"

"I know what it means," she said grumpily.

"Okay. So what does it _mean_ though?"

"It refers to when a vampire feels an almost irresistible draw to a human's blood. They call those humans 'singers.' I was Edward's singer."

"So he was destined to fall for you?"

"No, not like that. He just _really_ wanted to kill me because I smelled extra delicious to him."

"Ah. But instead he decided to make out with you?"

"Something like that."

"That's romantic."

"Your definition of romantic makes me concerned about your potential love life."

"I don't have a potential love life."

I think I must have given something up in the way I said it because she made a face and said, "If this is about Jacob, you shouldn't feel like you need to protect him. If you found someone else, you shouldn't worry about that. He wants you to be happy . . ."

"I don't think I'll find anyone else."

"We haven't really stopped moving long enough for you to know that."

"I mean I don't want to."

"So you have feelings for Jake?"

"I think so. He doesn't though."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Would it bother you if he did?"

"I don't know. I've thought about it a lot and I can't decide. I guess it wouldn't really matter how I felt though if you liked each other . . ."

"How did you guys meet?"

"We met when we were kids actually but we didn't become friends until I moved back here after Grandma Renee got remarried."

"Did you ever like him? I mean like that?"

"Yes. There was an incident the fall after I met your dad met and he and his family left for a few months. Jacob and I spent a lot of time together while they were gone. We never dated but we were very close."

"Have you kissed?"

"Once."

Ew.

"Okay. Well that's gross but whatever."

"It wasn't really like that. It was just a weird moment. Edward was there actually. Just down the hill from us . . ."

"Okay, no. That's getting weird you can stop now. What was the incident?"

"The what?"

"You said there was an incident and Dad left."

"Oh. It was on my birthday. Alice had a little party because you could never stop her from doing those kinds of things and I injured myself at their house during it. Drew a little blood. It wasn't a big deal for most of them but Uncle Jasper was kind of new to the 'vegetarian' thing and he freaked out a little bit. Scared Edward off. He didn't want to turn me and he felt having them around made things too dangerous so he left."

I hadn't really ever thought about them before I knew them. I don't think anyone dwells much on the private lives of extended family members so I hadn't considered the fact that they all might not have been animal blood drinkers their whole lives.

"So Uncle Jasper used to drink human blood?"

She didn't hesitate before answering but she looked like she didn't _want_ to answer.

"Me and Carlisle are the only vampires I know of who have never killed a human."

"So Dad . . ."

"Yes. But he used his mind-reading ability to track and kill evil men."

"Why didn't he just do that forever? Couldn't he have found people for all of you that way?"

"He didn't feel good about it. He really saw himself as a monster, as bad as the men he fed on."

"But he thought he was doing the right thing at the time?"

"Baby, you don't need to rationalize his actions. He was a good person, the rest of it is circumstantial."

"Do you think Aro thought _he_ was doing the right thing?"

"No. I think he's selfish."

"So you don't think that his actions were 'circumstantial'?"

"No."

"That sounds . . ."

"Hypocritical?"

"I didn't want to say it."

"The difference is what we'd be overlooking, honey. Your dad didn't want to hurt anyone. Aro . . . he liked hurting people I think."

"I guess I don't see motive as being as vital as you do in this case. The life he's living here with Grandpa doesn't seem that different than Dad's family. And before they had that life, all of them fed on humans . . . and they didn't all have Dad's ability to make sure the people they killed were bad . . ."

"It's just different, Renesmee."

"If you say so."

I put my hand on her cheek and sent her a series of images. Me and her in happy moments. Us with Jacob. Us with Dad. And then, a risk, a thing I had never shown her: my first meeting with Aro from my point of view. He was taller but he still could have reached my hand without stooping at all and yet he leaned down to be at my level, to look into my face. I remembered feeling no fear of him. His face reflected my own in appearing very young.

I wasn't sure yet, but what my mom had seen as selfishness, I thought was more like him being a bit of a child in a man's body. Children don't have a finely developed sense of self-control or complexly formed morals. They just want what they want and they don't think about right and wrong. But that didn't mean they didn't feel things. They loved and they felt afraid and they felt sad when they hurt people they loved. And lost people they loved.

I didn't want to overlook something bad if it was there but I also knew I was feeling a strong inclination to know Aro for Grandpa's sake.

"He said today that it was Caius who wanted to stay and fight us," she said after I took my hand away.

"Do you believe him?"

"I don't know. He was trying to make himself look better to Grandpa at the time so . . ."

"He loves Grandpa."

"He seems to."

"Grandpa's really good at knowing when people are lying . . ."

"I wouldn't know that because I'm a bad liar. Everyone always saw through my fibs."

"That's true. You sure kept a lot from me for being a bad liar though."

"You never asked before."

"I'll probably ask more things later."

"Later sounds good. Go to sleep now, baby."

She lay down next to me on the bed and said it was so I would feel safe but I was pretty sure she was the one who needed the safety.

I didn't plan on ever telling her but I wondered if she would eventually figure out on her own that the reason she didn't like Aro was because they were too much alike. Both of them eternal children. And both of them bent on getting the thing they wanted at almost any cost without properly weighing the consequences.

I hoped she would recognize before it happened that the consequence of continuing to hate Aro would be us losing the only family we had left.

* * *

END NOTES: Oh God, Renesmee Cullen is such an _awesome badass._ She's everything her parents could have been if they weren't both so lame.

And today, because of this, I started a thing I've been secretly wanting to do for some time: write an Aro/Ness fic. It seems weird in concept but really no weirder than her being with Jacob which is _actually_ weirder since Aro never held her as a baby at least. Ew. (It's from Aro's POV and he has a filthy little mind . . . or I do, I guess.)

Oh right, practical things. This chapter required a lot more research than I wanted to do but I did (most of) it anyway! I omitted many vampires from the battle according to book and a few from the movie that nobody cares about and only mentioned people I thought might be useful to me somewhere along the way.

And man, it was really weird having one _Twilight_ character tell another one such basic Twi knowledge like A and R's convo at the end there. But how much do you know about your aunts and uncles, really? Or your parents story? Weird.


	5. Obsessive Compulsive Wolf Dectective

**4**

**Leah's POV**

I think I liked being a wolf more than I liked being a human. I didn't at first. I hated my transformation because it linked my mind to the pack and exposed my heartbreak to everyone listening, all of them boys. It was humiliating. I hated the Cullens for it but I think I hated Bella more. They had lived here already for years but the trouble didn't start until she arrived

And now, dear God, she was back again. But I couldn't blame this new trouble on her and I knew Billy was right, we were going to need more help than we had. No new wolves had turned since it began so we weren't getting stronger. Not strong enough to fight this thing we couldn't even catch in the first place. Taking help from vampires was offensive to me as a Quileute and abhorrent to me as a wolf but I still hoped that she would come back with answers from Charlie Swan's vampire. We needed answers.

I had bumped nighttime security up to two wolves. One on the perimeter, patrolling in the trees and one in town, prowling among the residences. Tonight we had extra help, Jacob was with me, circling the town and even though I had been Alpha for longer than of them ever were, Jacob had an innate ease at being a wolf and a leader than I had had to learn. I wouldn't have admitted it aloud but I had a vague hope that he would stay and take over the pack so that I could retire in my misery. Maybe even move away. I had never considered leaving my home until now but I had been unhappy here long enough that it felt less like home all the time.

_Leah._

Jacob calling to me telepathically.

_What?_

_Have you seen this?_

_Seen what? _

_There are foot prints all over the beach . . ._

_It's a beach, people walk on it. _

_Just come here._

He sound irritated and it wasn't unjustified. I was being difficult.

I was there in seconds, the town wasn't large.

_Look._

I did and saw that he was right, there were footprints and I would have totally ignored them if he hadn't pointed them out.

_Renesmee likes Monk._

_Likes what?_

_Monk. It's a TV show about a detective. This is the kind of thing he'd notice. _

There were the usual footprints left by the townspeople, most of them bare feet but among them, something else. Another set made by someone in shoes but not sneakers and recent because they cut across the part of the sand that had been smoothed by the surf since everyone had gone to bed. They looked like they had been made by men's dress shoes and if you stared at them, they almost had an aura. And their path was clear as well, they lead straight to the break that went out to the island just off of First Beach. It was really a tall, long rock but the top was covered in trees making it look more like an island.

He started for it and I followed him. I hated that I was afraid and he would be able to sense it. But he was as well. Afraid for Renesmee, afraid about her being alone until they caught this thing.

I was selfishly pleased that he was here with someone who was such apparently perfect bait for this creature because it gave us an edge. Jacob was more driven to stop it than I was even though it scared me and I knew I needed to.

He knew a path to the top that was less steep than what I would have attempted and I trailed him silently. We stood still together when we got to the peak, scanning the sparse landscape. But we were looking too closely. Like how you miss something you lost because you're holding it in your hand. We heard an exasperated tsking sound and then saw him, standing only a few feet away. A man dressed in a tailored suit that was completely out-of-place for where we were. He had pale skin and long, sleek dark hair which was pulled neatly back from his face.

As we watched, he waved, grinning with a lot of very white teeth and then flipped backwards from the rock and disappeared over the side. We chased him and looked over the edge but he was gone. Even if he had gone into the water, the evidence of it would have been visible for a few seconds before the waves obliterated it. He'd simply vanished.

_Leah, I haven't seen him in a while but didn't that look exactly like—_

_Aro._

* * *

END NOTES: Ah, some of you quick readers always guess things I didn't even know until I was writing it_ . . .  
_

I write out on my back porch at night a lot and when I first wrote the conversation with Leah where she tells Bella about what's happening in La Push, I had to go back inside my house because it scared me too badly to be out there in the dark. I will explain about that further after the next chapter.


	6. My Own Personal Demon

**5**

**Bella's POV**

Renesmee fell asleep quickly. She wasn't the type to lay awake in the dark. She was a carefree person. She didn't allow things to burden her. I couldn't stop things from doing it or from being one myself. I was a burden with burdens.

I went downstairs. I knew he'd still be where he'd been when Renesmee and he had talked because I could smell him. He was at the table, staring at a computer screen. It was displaying a webpage of mostly text and he was typing and editing at unnatural speed.

"What are you doing?"

"Fixing Wikipedia. It actually deteriorates into embarrassing inaccuracy faster than I can correct it . . ."

"Noble."

I wasn't trying to be sarcastic but it just came out every time I saw him.

"Did you come down here just to insult me?" he asked without turning or stopping.

"No. I came to ask you about something."

He looked at me then. He looked tired. I had only ever seen a vampire look this way when I caught up with Edward in Italy. Aro didn't look as sick but he didn't look well either. I crushed the beginnings of sympathy, reminding myself that he was my enemy while also being annoyed at what my daughter had said about me _needing_ an enemy.

"Ask away . . ."

I sat on the kitchen counter so I wouldn't have to be too near him.

"Something's going on in La Push and the wolf pack asked me to ask you about it."

He waited.

"Leah Clearwater said that something has been attacking people at night, while they're sleeping and . . . doing things to them."

He raised his eyebrows.

"Sexually. She said a girl was pregnant but she miscarried."

"Girls get pregnant all the time . . ."

"Yeah, but she said there was something wrong with it."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. The girl's mom wouldn't say but Leah said she looked scared."

"Have these attacks been only on women?"

"Uh . . . no. She said guys too and she thinks it's happening more than people want to admit . . ."

"Were any of the victims harmed in any way?"

"Yeah. They had scratches and bites on them. She said the wounds looked like purple and they scarred up really badly."

"How long has this been happening?"

"Six months since she was first told. She wanted to know if you'd heard anything about it happening in Forks."

"I haven't seen it in anyone's thoughts lately but then I try to avoid touching people because it's easier to live in a place like this if you don't know everyone's secrets."

"Have you heard of anything like this before?"

"Yes, and if it's who I think it is, all of us are in for a lot of trouble."

If Aro was worried, this had to bad.

"Who? It's a person?"

"No, not a person, not anymore at least, a _demon_."

He tapped on his keyboard and then turned the computer so I could see the screen. It was another Wikipedia article. There was a painting to the side that depicted a woman lying on her side in a bed and a hunched simian-like figure sitting on her chest. The title of the article was _Incubus._

"It's a . . . monkey demon?"

The idea was both terrifying and sort of comical.

"No. He's just depicted that way. Well, I had him depicted that way in a spiteful moment and it caught on to my intense amusement at the time. He looks like a man. Or he can look like a man. This article suggests that there are many of them but there is only one. The other accounts are people covering up human assaults or nightmares translated by their minds into reality."

"So he has sex with people while they're asleep?"

"Yes. He transforms first into a female and lies with a human male to collect their . . . _leavings_ and then transforms into a man again and uses their seed to impregnate human females. The semen is altered by passing into his body though and the children are not entirely human. They are half-demon hybrids. They're called cambion and it's lucky for that girl to have lost her 'child.' They are gifted sometimes but more often simply deformed and unnatural."

"So he just goes around trying to breed with humans?"

"Yes. But he's more selective now than in the past which is why there are not as many accounts of this happening in modern times. He tends to search out areas with supernatural leanings hoping to find woman strong enough to actually carry one of his vile children to term."

"So that's why he's here . . ."

He didn't answer, he was staring at the webpage with an almost angry expression but then became alert suddenly, turning toward the front of the house.

"Wolves . . ."

I had smelled them as well and then seconds later a quiet knock. I was going to answer the door but Aro was already there, reminding me that this was his house and not mine. Jacob and Leah entered the room looking pale and fidgety.

"Wow. It's really you . . ." Jacob said, looking Aro over cautiously.

"Yes . . . I imagine if Bella were going to invent the most unsuitable spouse possible for her parent I still would have not made that list."

"We saw something," Leah said without greeting.

"A man?" Aro asked sedately.

"Yes!"

"What did he look like?"

Leah shared a nervous glance with Jacob.

"He looked . . . exactly like you."

Aro scoffed.

"He thinks he's so funny. Probably thought you'd come here and pick a fight with me."

I could see that they had maybe been thinking of doing just that and now felt stupid.

"So you know about him? I mean, you know who he is?"

"Yes, unfortunately, I do. His name is Falstaff—at least that is how he's known to those unfortunate enough to know him—and he's the most obnoxious person I have ever encountered in three thousand years of life."

"But what is he? Why is he here?"

He gestured to the computer screen, still displaying the incubus Wikipedia page and Jacob and Leah scanned it together and then turned back looking nearly identically sick to their stomachs.

"And I believe he is here _specifically_ for me."

"Why you?"

"Because he hates me and he takes delight in meddling in my life wherever and whenever possible which wasn't often in Volterra but now . . ."

"Oh well I'm really sorry about him coming to play pranks on you all the time but people are being _raped_ by him so I'm really not amused to be finding out this is your fault. God! _Vampires!_"

"Now Leah I'm not any more responsible for his annoyance of me than you are for mine of you."

"Was there a very loud convention of supernatural beings scheduled to be held in our front room that I was not informed about before I went to bed?"

Charlie had appeared at the top of the stairs in pajamas looking half-asleep. Aro Smiled at him affectionately and I was pretty sure I was about to invent vampire barfing.

"I'm sorry, dear, I didn't realize we were being that disruptive."

Once again his voice changed pitch and tone when talking to Charlie versus talking to us.

"Leah? Why—"

She glanced at me like she was asking permission to tell him. I shrugged. Aro would tell him anyway I was sure.

"We're having some trouble in La Push, we thought Aro could help us."

"Must be big trouble . . ."

As well put as it could possibly have been put, Dad.

"It's nothing to worry about, Charlie. We'll handle it easily enough, I think."

Charlie shook his head like he was too tired to even care and waved to us dismissively before turning back to his room. I saw Aro lean out a little to watch him go and had the disturbing feeling that he'd done this more to check him out than to make sure Charlie had gone back to bed.

I could feel a grumpy, sour expression on my face when he turned back to us.

"I thought you said we were all 'in for a lot of trouble'?" I accused.

"We are, but he doesn't need to know that right now. Or ever if we move quickly."

I didn't want Charlie to know either but I had hated being kept in the dark among the vampires when I was a human.

"Okay. What do we do?" Leah demanded. She was obviously hoping for some kind of crisp, movie-perfect plan we could execute to expel this guy from our lives.

"I can tell you what we've done before but whether those things actually worked or he simply grew tired of tormenting me, I can't say, so we'll just have—"

This little speech was interrupted by the sound of glass breaking. No, not breaking, shattering. Fear eclipsed the group but none of us as much as Aro whose demeanor was closer to terror. He was gone in a blink, up the stairs and down the hallway, yelling my dad's name. Oh God, Renesmee!

I followed Aro's route up only stopped at the the first door and flung it back. She was still there only sitting up now and looking confused and sleepy. Then Aro was behind me in the hallway. He snatched my wrist and yanked me back toward the stairs.

"He has Charlie, we have to go!"

"But, Renesmee—"

"Ill stay with her, Bella, go."

Leah went out ahead of us onto the porch.

"Can you guys smell well enough without me to follow him?"

"All the way to hell," Aro said in a voice that made me glad I wasn't the one he was after.

She turned and leaped from the porch, phasing in midair and streaking into the trees.

I inhaled into the slight breeze coming at us.

"He's headed for—"

"La Push," he finished and then he did something odd: he took my hand and ran with me through the trees, it didn't hinder our path very much and had an unexpected effect on me. We were united in a cause. To save someone we both loved and while that objective remained the same, he was my ally and not my enemy.

I could smell Leah as well as the demon, Falstaff, and then Charlie up ahead of us, three separate jet trails of scent, all as distinct as primary colors. Other smells flew at me as we passed them: moss, dirt, flowers, insects, feathers and then more human smells at we passed the outskirts of Forks: cigarette smoke, leather, car tires, coffee, mown grass. I was so used to smelling everything that I didn't even really notice it all anymore. These smells seemed to press in on me that night as though attempting to make me lose the trail of our quarry. Aro didn't seem to be having this problem and I followed his more sure path as we swerved onto the old highway to have a cleaner, faster path ahead.

Leah appeared just as I saw the sign for La Push. She paused like she wanted to make sure we saw her and were still on track and then streaked, even faster than before toward the center of town and through to the beach. First Beach where I had first heard about wolves and vampires so many years ago now. Leah had stopped at the edge of the surf, looking confused. Had they gone into the water?

No. Her sense of smell may have been acute but her eyesight was not nearly as sharp as ours and it only took a second of scanning the area before I saw a dark figure of a mismatched, awkward size climbing the cliff-face. Falstaff carrying Charlie. Aro saw him too and we streaked off, Leah bounding after. We made our way to the top faster than she did in only a leap and a half. It wasn't very large up there and they were easy to spot. Easy and horrifying. The demon was standing at the edge of the ocean-facing side and he had Charlie dangling over the edge by one ankle. Charlie wasn't moving and I wondered if he'd already harmed him in some way.

I would have made for him immediately, sure I could catch Charlie and get him to relative safety easily. But Aro wasn't moving so I took his cue since I didn't know what kinds of powers he might have but Aro did and he was now acting very casual.

"Why hello, my _dear_ Aro," Falstaff said like we'd just run into him in the supermarket and stopped to have a chat. His voice was silky and sweet. It reminded me of the way Aro used to talk. "I've been looking around for you for quite some time, ever since I found your precious little city abandoned. Or at least _actually_ free of vampires now. And then it took _so long_ for those dogs to finally track me down here! I had hoped that would be more fun but they didn't buy my disguise it seems . . ."

They had reported him as looking like Aro but he didn't to me. He was unsettling beautiful. But it was a twisted beauty that made me recoil. Like an evil doll. He had bright white hair that seemed to defy gravity and wisped around his head in a creepy halo. And his eyes were violet. I thought I saw a hint of purple in his mouth as well when he spoke.

"Alright, Falstaff. You've had your fun. You can put my friend down now."

I thought Aro sounded okay as far as being composed under the circumstances but Falstaff laughed at him.

"Your _friend?_ Why I thought you were in some sort of odd human-style relationship with this . . . um, person."

Aro had obviously been trying to downplay his connection to Charlie for some reason and was a little panicked that it wasn't working.

"No, Aro. I won't just 'put him down,' at least nowhere you'd like him to be. You see, I've been waiting _so very long _for you to care about something enough to make it worth my time to destroy it. I mean, since you got to that sweet little sister of yours before I could . . ."

Aro's facade dropped and his desperation showed plainly.

"Please . . ."

It wasn't a word I ever thought would come from Aro's mouth at least in a non-ironic way and I didn't think he meant to say it. Falstaff smiled and made a tsking sound.

"You're so . . . _adorable_ when you're sad, Aro. And it always makes it so much more worth it to torment you just to see you make that face! Hmm, heartbreaking . . ."

Then he moved his arm out further and opened his hand with an unnecessarily dramatic gesture, leaving it out over the side, fingers splayed as Charlie plummeted out of sight.

Aro was gone over the edge in a flash and I jumped at Falstaff but he was gone and I flipped a little awkwardly and dived feet-first into the waves. I surfaced and looked around. Looked for Charlie and Aro and that fucking demon so I could tear his limbs off with my bare hands. I didn't see him but I found Aro and Charlie and sped toward them.

They were on the rocks at the base of the cliff. Aro was kneeling and holding Charlie who looked . . . broken. I could smell blood and see it running down the crevices in the rock to the water. The salt of his blood meeting the salt of the ocean in a sickening union. My traitor vampire thirst made my throat burn at the scent. Aro was mumbling and stuttering, rocking slightly.

"You'll be f-fine, sweetie. Your heart's still beating so it's fine. You'll be fine you'll be fine you'll be fine. You'll be okay, Charlie. Just f-focus on the pain if you have to just k-keep your heart beating until it sp-spreads enough . . . you'll be able to feel it and then you can let go and it will be fine . . ."

I could see now that Aro had bitten him. There were teeth marks on his throat and wrists and probably on his ankles though they were dangling into the water, hidden from view.

I had never seen a vampire transformation so I didn't know how close to death a person had to be for it not to work although I knew that I was basically dead when Edward got to me. I had lost almost all my blood and my spine was crushed and I was so malnourished already . . . but he was healthy before this so he'd be fine . . .

Even with the waves hissing around us and the terrible scene in front of me, everything felt silent and frozen so it was extra jarring when I was hit from the side and knocked back into the water. I broke the surface a second time and found Leah, in human form, bobbing in the waves next to me. She grabbed my hair and pulled.

"I asked for your help and you come here and bite a human on Quileute land!"

I shoved her away.

"He's dying, Leah! Are we supposed to let him die!"

"I don't care! Better dead than a leech!"

I pushed her head underwater and held her there until she stopped fighting me. Her heart was still beating, she was just passed out. I pulled her to the surface and she gasped but didn't wake.

"Run, Aro! Take him home! I'll follow you later!"

He nodded and stood, holding Charlie carefully. God, he was so careful. And so afraid. I felt my heart break against my will, not just for Charlie's possible death but for Aro's pain over it, and when it did, a little bit of my hatred for him escaped and vanished into that evil night, skipping as swiftly from my reach as Falstaff had only I didn't attempt to catch it. It felt okay to let just that little bit go.

* * *

The house was silent when I returned from an extended screaming match with Leah after she regained awareness. She said we were banned from this area forever and if she found us there after tonight, she wouldn't hesitate to release the pack on us all.

Jacob and Renesmee were sitting in the living room, staring at the carpet. I could hear a faint heartbeat coming from above and I followed it to the door of Charlie's room. It wasn't shut and I looked in to find them laying on the bed. There was blood on the sheets and blood on Aro's hands and face as well. Blood coming from Charlie's mouth. Aro was holding onto him with his face turned inward to the curve of his shoulder.

He didn't move when I came in. The smell of blood was maddening and I had no idea how he was standing it especially with it actually on his skin.

"Aro?"

"I've done a terrible thing."

"It's fine, Aro. Leah's just being stupid. He'll change and we'll leave and it'll be fine. We have no reason to stay in Forks now anyway."

"This is our home . . . he gave me a home. He didn't know me or anything about me when he found me there that day at the Cullen's. His feelings for me were honest. Not based on my position of power or my abilities. No one has ever loved me like that . . . except maybe Didyme. And now I've killed them both . . ."

I didn't know how I could respond to that. It was a heart-wrenching admission. But I could hear his heartbeat. I knew he wasn't dead. Aro was just being self-punishingly melodramatic. He meant that he'd taken Charlie's human life.

"How is he?"

"I don't know. Something's wrong though . . ."

A chill colder even than my vampire flesh crept over me.

"What do you mean?"

"Falstaff bit him. That's why he wasn't struggling. I should have noticed. I should have realized but I was too distracted . . ."

"What happens when he bites someone?"

"He injects them with a sort of poison. It paralyses so that he can perform his acts without resistance. It wears off after a while but I don't know what will happen now. I don't know if the venom I gave him will simply burn it away or something else . . ."

He traced his fingertips over a bite on Charlie's forearm. It looked infected and was seeping purplish fluid.

" . . . and he was so damaged already. I shouldn't have done it."

"But the venom will fix that—"

"No. Not always. Sometimes the body is too far gone and they change but they don't heal. They're left in a state of constant pain as the venom tries and fails to repair them. And they're almost impossible to kill because they're crazed with agony and they have the strength of a newborn . . ."

"But . . . I almost died. Edward brought me back when I was basically dead . . ."

I was feeling increasingly desperate about the variables involved. He lifted his head to look at me.

"He likely didn't know about it. It's not a well-documented phenomenon. He took a great risk changing you when he did. The results could easily have been tragic."

"But—"

"I should have changed him years ago. Or I should have let him die tonight rather than take this chance. His injuries are mostly internal. There's no way to tell if they're healing like they should." He paused and made a face like he was trying to breathe and couldn't. "Bella, what have I done?"

He was looking at Charlie with a fearful, panicked expression. I didn't know how to answer. My mind was filled with terrible visions of him becoming something demonic because of Falstaff's poison or being in so much pain we'd have to kill him. Or both.

I backed from the room and made it as far as the stairs before I was forced to sit or collapse. I had thought it would be fine. I was even happy on the way back here, glad he was finally going to be transformed and safe. Now all I could think about was if I would have to call on Leah and her pack to come here and assist us in murdering him the second he opened his eyes.

* * *

END NOTES: In the first chapter Charlie mentions a skin-blistering-in-sunlight thing to Bella. It's what's called a "porphyria" and is thought to be one of the medical conditions that led people to believe in vampires as it kept people pale and forced them to avoid sunlight.

Like that, there is the incubus/succubus legend which is believed to have arisen from accounts of something called "sleep paralysis." It's basically the reverse of what occurs when people sleepwalk. Your body shuts downs your voluntary muscles during REM sleep to prevent you from acting out your dreams. This malfunctions in sleepwalkers so they move around, but don't wake. Sleep paralysis occurs when you become conscious in your sleep-sedated muscle state and you find yourself trapped in a frozen body.

I've experienced it five or six times in my life and I would literally rather have just about anything else happen to me than ever experience it again. The incubus legend is thought to stem from the fact that sufferers of sleep paralysis often experience hallucinations while in this state, most commonly representing as a presence in the room and a feeling of being pinned down by something heavy. I've only had hallucinations a few times although you feel like you're doing to die every time. Once I experienced the classic heavy-weight-on-your-back/chest thing which was upsetting but not as much as the _other_ time, when I woke up on my side and out of the edge of my vision I saw a pair of large white hands holding me down. There was nothing there obviously but it scared the shitcacas out of me because it felt like it was pushing me down into the mattress trying to crush me.

So, yeah, Falstaff. He's sort of my personal demon. I don't like him.

I've been trying to draw him for days but it hasn't worked out yet. I'll let you know it if does.


	7. Not So Squishy Now

_AN~Whoa. Sorry about leave you hanging on this. I've been working on my AroNess story. Almost done with the draft! Hooray!_

* * *

**6**

**Charlie's POV**

I remember pain. Pain and the taste of sea water.

Sounds and images floated at me out of the darkness behind my eyelids. I saw two people I thought were my parents but my emotional connection to them was tenuous. I saw a petite woman who looked familiar and thinking about her was painful. I saw her floating face down in a swimming pool, an empty glass bobbing on the surface of the water next to her head. I saw a small town that was more familiar than these things. I knew it was my home but I couldn't recall the name.

I saw a vampire with long dark hair and I knew her to be my daughter. A vampire. That snapped many more things into focus. My house and the Cullen family and my granddaughter but most of all Aro. I saw his face clearly. I knew he was the reason I lived and had been living for some time. The feeling I had was more than love, it was need and want and an all-encompassing, desperate joy. I saw my life with him in striking detail. Our first kiss. Our last kiss. The feel of a new wedding band being placed on my finger. I heard his laugh. Felt his strange hands on my skin. I remembered everything about him. He was everything.

I opened my eyes and saw the ceiling of our bedroom. I had been staring at that ceiling for more than twenty years but it was not the same ceiling I saw now. I had known it to have texture before but this was different. There were uncountable divots and holes and swoops in the paint on its face. I could have stared at just that for a very long time but I sat up. Everything in the room was the same way the ceiling was. All crystal clear at once but not overwhelming.

I knew I was a vampire intellectually but it didn't feel real. I stood and walked into the adjoining bathroom. Except I didn't walk, really. I flew or floated or just thought and I was there. I looked in the mirror and saw the evidence that I _was_ a vampire at last. I had known I would be eventually but why it had happened now wasn't clear. I remembered going to bed last night. Was it last night?

My skin was as pale as the other vampires I had known now. And flawless . . . except for my arm. I lifted it and saw a shock white scar there. Or two, rather, two crescents facing each other. I thought I would lose all of the physical imperfections I'd had before. But I didn't have these before. I guessed it had been from changing me. Maybe the bites took a while to fade?

It wasn't the only odd thing about me either. My eyes weren't the bright red I had been told to expect when I was a newborn. They were a deep purple. They scared me and I wasn't sure why.

I wasn't wearing the pajamas I had worn to bed. I had on jeans and clean t-shirt. I ran my hand down my chest and found that the softness of middle age had vanished leaving smooth skin and muscle behind. I wasn't a body-builder but I wasn't scrawny either.

I hadn't really thought much about my looks before. I knew I wasn't ugly. I was attractive enough but I hadn't ever tried to define it beyond that. I didn't need to think about it now though. I was as perfect as the rest of them. Another otherworldly beauty. It was almost impossible to reconcile looking this way and I watched myself for what felt like a long time.

Then Aro again. The desire to find him took over my thoughts and I went into the hallway. I heard voices downstairs. I could understand them as clearly as if they were next to me but I didn't focus on them because none of them were him.

I waited and then he spoke, "Yes, the little world of Forks no longer revolves around you, Bella."

"No, it's all about you now," she responded bitterly.

"Well, I don't spend all of my time thinking I'm too good for it . . ."

"Did Charlie say that?"

"No, Edward did. This is my home now and since you never really wanted to make it yours it would be really nice if you stopped trying to make me feel like it shouldn't be mine."

Goody. Hoped I could look forward to listening to them cat fight for the rest of eternity . . .

I went to the top of the stairs. There were people sitting around our kitchen table but I only saw him. He was already out of his chair. He looked anxious. I jumped the banister and collided with him, pushing him back into the wall. I kissed him in a way that I had never kissed anyone, like I wanted to somehow make him a part of me.

When I pulled away he was smiling, that tiny, odd smile that had first made me fall in love with him. I kissed him again, lightly.

"You're soft . . ."

"Yes. And you're not so squishy now."

He pinched my side to demonstrate. I went to kiss him against but he glanced away nervously.

"Everyone's watching us . . . "

I turned to them and saw my vampire daughter. She had been pretty as a human and then stunning as a vampire but she was more beautiful now than I remembered. She looked wary though. My granddaughter was smiling, I could hear her heartbeat and see the subtle way her skin glowed with the blood underneath. And Jacob Black. His heart was slower and deeper than hers. His expression was somewhere between Bella's and Renesmee's. He looked relieved but also unsure.

They were all just staring at me and the silence was becoming awkward.

"I know. I'm awesome."

I turned away from Aro and swept my hand in the air down my side, beginning at the top of my head, like a girl on a game show presenting a newly revealed prize package from behind a curtain.

Aro giggled crazily and Renesmee bounced from her chair to embrace me. Bella came forward but didn't touch me. She was staring at my face.

"Not what you expected?"

"Your eyes . . ."

"Oh yeah. I thought they'd be red . . ."

Bella and Aro exchanged a nervous glance. They were hiding something.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Great. Why?"

"Do you—are you thirsty?"

"Um. What does that feel like?"

"Is your throat burning?"

As he said, I suddenly became aware of the sensation. It was uncomfortable but not terrible.

"A little bit . . ."

"A _little _bit?" Bella sounded alarmed.

"That's probably not bad . . ." Aro said but he sounded uncertain.

"Okay, what's going on?"

A wolf howl interrupted before anyone could speak though.

"I'm sorry, my love, but we really don't have time to talk here. The wolves aren't happy with your transformation, I'm afraid."

"Oh right. I thought we'd go somewhere else I guess."

"There wasn't time."

"Okay . . ."

"There's not time now, either, Dad, we have to run."

"Well I feel like running so that's good."

"Do you want to take anything?" Aro asked.

"Yup."

I slid my arm around his waist and pulled him back close to me. He smiled, giddy and we spun together towards the door.

"Let's go out the back . . ." Jacob said. "They're out front right now. You ready, Ness?"

"Always."

She followed Jacob through the kitchen to the back door.

"We should separate," Bella said. "We can divide them that way. One wolf can't do much to any of us."

"Or I can protect you."

I hadn't tested my strength yet but I knew that I could literally demolish this room without effort.

"Yeah. You guys should stay together at least. Especially while we're so close to humans . . ."

"You first," I said and she took another second to look over my face with that worried expression before disappearing out the back.

We stayed for a few seconds, looking around at our home.

"I wish we didn't have to leave . . ." he said. He sounded so sad it hurt me.

"At least we're going together . . ."

"Yes. I would have done this differently, I'm sorry."

"I'm not. I've been ready for years."

"I know."

We walked from the house, slowly, holding hands. I felt like I would feel sad about leaving later. Right now I was too excited about everything happening to feel sad. I wanted to run into the woods and see everything with my new vision and hear new sounds and . . . be with Aro. In every way possible. We couldn't be separated now. It was intoxicating.

I had been breathing the air of the pacific-northwest my entire life but it wasn't this air. I wanted to pause and inhale it more but Aro tugged at me, looking afraid now.

"We really do have to go. They'll be after me more than the others because I changed you."

"Let's go then."

We ran into the trees together and I realized I didn't know where we were going. Aro seemed to have a direction in mind though so I just followed him. We'd been running for maybe a minute when the first wolf came out of the trees. It lunged at Aro and a dark red fury unlike anything I had experienced in life overwhelmed me. I raced between them and batted it away. It felt like nothing and I saw it fly back into the trees. I tried not to think about which unfortunate Quileute youth I may have just injured or even killed. I knew it wasn't their fault that this enmity between our kind and theirs existed but while they were actively trying to hurt Aro, they would be in the path of destruction because I knew I would kill anyone who tried to harm him.

"Get on my back."

"Charlie, I'm quite fast . . ."

"It'll be easier for me to protect you this way."

I thought he would argue more because that's what he did but instead he uncharacteristically obeyed and as soon as his arms were around my neck securely, I took off again.

"Where am I going, by the way?"

"To Seattle, there's a safe house there."

I knew where I was in the forest somehow. Like a compass, I shifted direction slightly and headed in the straightest course to the city. Aro had his face pressed against my neck. I felt him draw breath against my skin.

"Did you just smell me?"

"Yes. You smell wonderful. And it's so nice not to want to eat you anymore."

"I thought I looked pretty tasty, actually . . ."

"You are."

He squeezed me and for once it didn't hurt. It just felt like a hug. I had to fight off the desire to stop there and start kissing him again. So much about my human life was blurry but I knew there had been some complicated feelings about him being male when we'd first met. It didn't make sense now. He was just him. Everything about my feelings felt natural. Loving him was easy and the sexual desire I felt was so potent it made me a little dizzy. I wanted to feel his new skin, or the new way his skin felt against mine. Then I silenced those thoughts because I was pretty sure that running at this speed, even as a vampire, would be uncomfortable with an erection.

The trees changed as we got further from Forks. A large brown wolf came out of the woods to my right but my brain, now able to calculate my environment at a faster, clearer pace than ever before registered it as Jacob long before any base instinct would have caused me to impulsively attack. Renesmee was riding casually on his back like some sort of medieval princess on a loping, furry horse.

"Where's Bella?"

I didn't shout but they both heard me. Jacob shook his massive head and Renesmee turned hers back into the trees, looking worried.

"We should go back."

"No, Charlie! We're almost there."

"Jacob? Can you carry two?"

Then I got to see what a giant wolf looked like when they were startled because his jaw dropped a little bit and I waited for the request to sink in before grabbing Aro's arm and deftly flipping him off my back and onto Jacob's, behind Renesmee.

I heard her laugh and Aro yell, "No!" But he didn't let go.

"I'll meet you at the Space Needle, Meg Ryan!"

I watched his shocked little face disappear from view and spun back toward Forks and La Push. I paused, sifting through my memories for the smells in my house just after I woke up. I focused on detangling them and assigning them place. There was the smell of human food and soap and dust and cotton clothing and the paint and wood of the house and underneath all of this the smell of my companions. Jacob really did smell like a wet dog but it wasn't as terrible as other vampires had made it out to be. He smelled like a clean dog that had been in the clean rain of the unpolluted beaches of the Olympic Peninsula. Then a sweet, soft smell like lavender and melted brown sugar, that was Renesmee. Then Aro's familiar dark, heady smell, only intensified. Books and warm sunlight and a hidden feral musk that caused a rush of sexual desire to envelope me. That made me want to turn and chase him but I forced myself to stop and search for Bella. There, Bella's smell was sharper than the others. It had a heavy, forceful scent and suited her so perfectly I laughed a little. It was like a moody brand of strong liquor infused with sunflowers. It was an utterly unique smell. I inhaled and caught it coming from the west, I sped after it, following it as easily as I would have a blinking light ahead of me.

I heard wolves and I heard Bella shouting. When I got there I saw that she'd been cornered by three of them. They were small and I was pretty sure she could have taken them but she didn't seem to want to. I think her love for Jacob made it difficult for her to bring herself to harm a wolf especially since she knew the Alpha of this pack had helped protect her during her pregnancy. I swung into a tree and landed in the center of them.

"This isn't necessary, Leah, if you're here. I don't know what you look like as a wolf but we're obviously on our way out here. No humans have been hurt and everything is peachy keen, so me and my family are going to leave now and you know what, I'm probably going to come back here at some point and get what I want from my house and you're not going to stop me because as I'm sure you are aware, I am much, much stronger than all of you combined right now and fighting me will lead to a lot of unnecessary injury."

I demonstrated my strength by putting my hand on a nearby tree and pushing gently. My arm sank into the trunk past my wrist like the wood were made of shaving cream and I brought back a handful sawdust. I started to wipe it on my pants and then reached for the nearest wolf instead and brushed off the chips on its fur.

"Sorry, If I got that on these clothes my husband would kill me and he's much scarier than you three. Now, if you don't mind—" I caught Bella's wrist and flung her over my back, she made a startled yelp but hung on, "—we'll be on our way to let you all calm down enough for us to be buddies again. Don't let anybody touch our house, okay? We will _definitely_ be back. My husband loves it here and he always gets what he wants . . ."

Then I bolted into the woods. They must have been surprised because it was at least twenty seconds before I heard them following us. I felt like they were just being perfunctory at this point though because they didn't come close to catching us and in another minute, we were back to the place I split up with the others. Bella was struggling against my hold and I dropped her. She hit the ground with a very un-Bella-like grace and kept pace with me easily.

"I was just holding them off so you guys could get ahead. I was fine."

"Well, we were ahead and you were gone. I know you're a big bad vampire, Bells, but you're still my baby and if you're lost in the woods, I will come find you."

I heard heard her mutter, "I wasn't lost," but she didn't try to argue more.

We crossed the water standing on top of a ferry. Its pace was uncomfortably slow after my run but the motion of the water and smell of the ocean were soothing.

"Never thought you would become a vampire . . ."

"Made sure of that by lying to me about it all."

"Yeah, well, ironically, if I _had_ told you the truth, your future husband would have come and ripped all of our heads off."

"He does tend to overreact . . ."

"I still don't understand why you like him."

"And I still don't understand why you liked Edward."

"Edward was beautiful . . ."

"And angst-ridden . . ."

"Thoughtful."

"Whiny."

"Brave."

"Kind of stupid. At least about you . . ."

"I guess that's true."

"And there, we've just pretty much described my husband too so I guess you do know. Except mine is way smarter and funnier."

"You didn't really know Edward though."

"Yeah. Kind of hard to really know a person when you don't even know what they are . . ."

"Did you have feelings for Aro before you knew?"

"Yes. I mean, I knew he wasn't human right away. I knew he was like you guys. But I didn't know he was a vampire until after I was in love with him already."

"Who said it first?"

She'd acted like she'd rather drink rat blood than talk about him before.

"Do you actually want to know about this?"

"I'm asking . . ."

"Well, he did. Sort of. He _told_ me I was in love with him."

She snorted.

"Were you?"

"Yes. But I was 'confused'. I went to a therapist!"

"What? You _what?_"

"Yeah. Almost more shocking than falling for a dude."

"Wow. How long did you do that for?"

"I only went twice. I'm not a super complicated guy. I figured out how I felt and I went and told him and that was that."

"What happened to Sue?"

"We broke up."

"After you . . .?"

"Yeah. She kind of knew already though. She said it was a 'Swan thing' to fall in love with vampires."

I was surprised when she laughed. Not just a little but hysterically and I had to tell her to be quiet so the people under us didn't freak out.

"I guess it is . . ."

"I don't feel good about Edward being gone, you know. I'm just now comprehending how difficult that must be."

"Thanks, Dad."

She slid closer and put her head on my shoulder and we watched the light of Seattle draw very slowly closer as our paths did the same. We were on the same team now for maybe the first time in our lives and other than the day Aro "proposed" to me and day Bella was born, it was maybe the happiest moment of my life so far.

Bella was concerned that I hadn't hunted yet since we were in a city full of tasty humans now but it didn't bother me. It was like passing restaurants while walking somewhere while you're late. I could smell them and it was nice but I didn't have time to stop and eat so I just ignored it. Maybe I was too practical to be a good vampire . . .

Or not because I was really doing it so I could get to Aro faster. Or as fast as I was allowed to move here. Walking at human speeds, even with the little short cuts we managed when no one was looking took nearly twenty insanity-producing minutes.

They were easy to spot even while Jacob wasn't a giant dog. I was relieved to see he was dressed in regular clothing and not those cut-off shorts he'd been running around in for months before they all disappeared. Renesmee was wearing a backpack so I assumed they'd planned ahead on all of this. Aro was scanning the crowd, looking anxious and I stayed Bella so I could watch him for a second. His concern for me was adorable. From what I knew, it would be pretty hard to do me any harm right now but he was still worried. I had a vague desire to do something affectionately violent to him and I appreciated him not crushing me to death now.

I looked at Bella and grinned.

"Mine's hotter too . . ."

I heard her make a disgusted noise but I was already halfway to them. When we were spotted he looked relieved and then replaced it with boredom, I think so he didn't look as vulnerable.

He smiled when I picked him up to kiss him though and looked a little shaky when I set him back on his feet.

"You know it was the Empire State Building, not the Space Needle . . ."

"I know, you made me watch that movie like twelve times."

"You liked it."

"I liked you."

"Okay. Gross. Can we go now?"

It was Bella who'd spoken. Jacob was smirking at her and Renesmee had her head to the side making an "aww" face.

"Where are we going, anyway? You said something about a 'safe house'?'"

Aro grinned in a way that told me he'd been hiding something. But not a bad thing, like a surprise. He took my hand and pulled me back to the street. We got some looks but I wasn't sure if it was because we were men or because we were vampires. I assumed vampires because it was Seattle but Aro was giving out defensive looks that made me wonder.

We got to a very swanky apartment building and Aro strolled straight past the doorman and typed a four digit code into a keypad. I had never been here before and I was pretty sure he didn't have time to have a second secret life but he seemed to know right where he was going. We got into an elevator and he pressed the button for the seventh floor and then turned left out of the doors when they opened and stopped in front of apartment 712.

He knocked and I heard footsteps and a human heartbeat and caught a smell that was just barely familiar. Then the door opened and I knew exactly where it was from: The incense Melany Greenstick burned in her office.

I would have expected her to have looked more surprised at seeing me but she just eyed me for a second and then looked at Aro and said, "You little liar."

He laughed, delighted, and led us straight past her into the apartment without an invitation.

* * *

END NOTES: Charlie Swan is my fave vampire of all now.

His husband's still aight I guess . . .


	8. Four Goths and a Furry

**Melany's POV**

I first met Aro about a year after Charlie was my patient. I didn't know exactly what he was right away but I knew he was supernatural. I wondered if maybe other people also knew it and just suppressed it so they could carrying on believing monsters were make believe.

I was only in Forks for one day, helping out on a mental health awareness day thing someone had organized at their high school. Well, not someone, _Aro_. There was a spark of recognition when we were introduced but neither of us could acknowledge that we knew who the other was. I hadn't heard from Charlie since he'd cancelled his last appointment so hearing "Swan" as Aro's last name was a surprise. I had found other excuses to return to Forks after that so I could study him. Charlie had described him as "different" and I knew then that he'd meant more than that Aro was different to him as a guy. Aro was a different thing altogether.

I got involved in his committees and groups and if he knew I was stalking him, he never showed it and always acted delighted to see me. I connected him to the Volturi three years ago and he'd neatly sidestepped my questions and hints but I had paintings of them and the only thing I could have changed to make the vampire in the picture more closely resemble Aro would have been to paint jeans and t-shirt on him.

I had been studying the supernatural since I was twelve and I was probably the only person, expect maybe Aro if he'd watched it, who scoffed at the supernatural inaccuracies in the X-Files. I still loved it, I was Dana Scully for Halloween for three years of high school, and it fueled my interest in human psychology. I wanted to sort out the causes of certain types of psychological disorders and I was sure some of them were connected to the supernatural. I was particularly interested in the possibility that people who experienced voices and visual hallucinations were actually inadvertently coming into contact with that other world. I conducted experiments with schizophrenics and hid my results and the actual focus of my studies behind fake data and objectives and added the real findings to my own secret archive of the unusual.

I decided early on that the reason no one knew anything concrete about these other things is because those things didn't want us to know so I kept all of my research to myself. I had talked to one person about them, a budding cryptozoologist I met in college named Mattie. He vanished during a trip to Brazil over the summer and I never told anyone again.

There were conventions for people like me. People with real belief in the supernatural but I avoided them. That world didn't want exposure and aligning myself with people bent on exposing it would only halt my progress. I made sure that outwardly, everyone who knew me believed me to be a concrete lover of observable facts and science and not someone you'd ever catch freeze-framing an alien autopsy video.

I believed that this would be my protection from that world if I ever encountered a non-human entity so that they would know I wasn't going to tell anyone about them. I thought that had been Mattie's mistake and I hoped I was wrong and he was fine somewhere.

So I wasn't exactly shocked when five supernatural beings appeared at my door that night. I was a little stunned at the change in Chief Swan but I had assumed Aro would make him a vampire eventually. Since I had first figured out that that is what he was, I had spent a lot of time trying to decide if I would ever consider leaving the human world and entering that other world myself. I still didn't know but I felt that the decision had suddenly jumped a lot closer as I invited them into my apartment that night.

"Oh, this is lovely. It's just how I remember it," Aro said happily, strolling into my living room and glancing around at my things.

"Have you been breaking into my house while I'm not here?"

"No, of course not, I read your mind," he said like the answer was obvious.

"None of the accounts I've found detailed your abilities specifically, so no, I didn't assume that."

"Hmm. Well, you can ask anything you like now, I suppose . . ."

"Okay. How about, 'What are you doing here?'"

"That doesn't sound very friendly."

"It's past midnight."

I wasn't really upset. Even in my groggy state, having something I'd dreamed about for decades suddenly finally happening was exhilarating. And as sad as it probably made my life, Aro was one of my closest friends. The only thing really between us were his subtle denials of his actual nature.

"Oh you never sleep anyway. If I made you a vampire right now you'd hardly know the difference. You spend all of your time inside and you drink your calories."

Vampire! He'd said it! It was real!

He'd also called me a lush.

"I don't drink that much."

He smiled. "You know I don't care. I love gluttons."

"Great. So . . .?"

"Oh, well, Charlie's a vampire now."

"Uh yeah I can see that. So is this a coming out party then?"

"No. We were chased out of Forks actually. There are some . . . people who don't like us . . ." He waved his hand around vaguely, obviously glossing over a lot but in a way that made me think it was because he found it boring rather than something I wasn't supposed to know.

I turned to Charlie. Sort of. I couldn't quite make this person in front of me be the same one I'd met almost five years before. I had seen him infrequently since then so his hair color and dress sense weren't really different but he was still far from the Charlie I knew. I had wondered exactly how different people looked after becoming vampires and now I knew: a lot. An almost unimaginable amount. He'd always been cute in a boyish way but he was sort of breathtaking now. They all were but since I didn't know the others, Charlie's appearance was the most startling.

"Hello, Charlie. You look . . . like a vampire, I guess."

"Yeah. It's freaky, right?" He turned to the young woman next time him. "This is my therapist! What a coincidence!"

"Uh . . ."

"Melany, this is my daughter, Bella."

"The missing daughter?"

"Yup. Actually just a vampire herself turns outs. And this is my granddaughter, Renesmee. She's a half-vampire. Pretty fancy. And that's Jacob. He's a . . . wolf."

"A werewolf?"

The idea actually scared me more than vampires. Vampires were controlled and, if the rest of them were anything like Aro, refined. But werewolves, at least as far as I knew, were not controlled. They changed during moon cycles into crazed beasts. I glanced toward the window without meaning to to check the phase of the moon.

"No," the boy said. "Not really. I can change whenever I want. I'd show you but I'm a little big for your kitchen . . ."

"That's okay. Maybe . . . later."

Aro jumped onto the counter and sat there swinging his feet slightly like he was a kid sitting on a still swing in a playground.

"You know I'm always happy to see you, Aro, but I still don't understand why you're here."

"We just needed somewhere to come so we could sort out our thoughts since we're all a bit homeless now and I thought since you've been so patient that I would finally pay off all of your research with some real evidence. Since I like you so much."

"Okay. Thanks, I think. I mean, yes, this is exciting for me obviously but why are you homeless? What happened in Forks?"

"Oh an old friend of mine showed up and tried to kill my husband and so I had to turn him into a vampire and Jacob's little pack of mutts didn't like it and so we're here."

"What? Mutts?"

I looked at Jacob who rolled his eyes.

"We're_ wolves,_" he reminded but looked more amused than upset. "There's a treaty between us and the vamps. They don't eat humans, they can live in Forks, ect."

"Okay. You guys are really skipping over a lot here. Hold on."

I tugged open a drawer next to Aro's feet and pulled out a notebook.

"See? You don't even keep food in your kitchen!" he said happily.

I scribbled a few notes to clear my head of them and looked up again.

"So, you're not from Forks?"

"I'm from La Push."

"Oooh, you're Quileute. That makes more sense now . . ."

Aro looked impressed and it pleased me.

"Did he say someone tried to kill you?"

I was looking at Charlie and he shrugged and said, "First I've heard of it."

Aro sighed, looking sadder now and recounted his reluctant association with a man named Falstaff who was an incubus, or _the_ incubus as he'd put it, who followed him around tormenting him.

"Is he going to . . . come looking for you . . .?"

I tried not to sound nervous but the description of him had scared the shit out of me.

"Oh no, I'm sure he's long gone. He's had his fun."

"But he'll come back. You said he would," Bella said.

"Yes, in fifty or a hundred or two hundred years."

"But in the meantime he's out hurting people . . ."

"Do you want to track him down and kill him, Bella?"

Aro sounded very slightly sarcastic but she stared him down. It was pretty obvious these two weren't besties.

"Why not?"

"I don't even know if he _can_ be killed."

"Everything can be killed," she said ominously. "You don't have to do it if you're scared, just tell us everything you know."

Aro didn't look moved by her taunt. He looked bored.

"Well we first met as humans—"

His four companions had almost identical reactions of shock at this revelation.

"—we grew up in the same village. We share a birthday, actually although not the same year, he is younger than me. We didn't associate as children much and I first really became aware of him when he was around thirteen. He was just a pickpocket and a scam artist then but he knew of the supernatural world long before I did and was involved in it even then. It wasn't until I had already been a vampire for years before I found that out though. By then he was an alchemist with a penchant for dabbling in the what you'd now call 'the occult.' He was looking for immortality. But he didn't want to become a vampire. He thought we were too limited by the daylight and our thirst. He wanted more freedom. And he was attempting to seduce my younger sister. I made her a vampire to keep her away from him. Probably why he hates me, I guess . . ."

"So he made himself into what he is?"

"I suppose so. He didn't exactly tell me what he did to become the creature he is now but the next time I saw him probably about 1220 BC he was different. He knew I could read minds because I'd done it before and he wouldn't allow me to get close enough to do it again. I know what I know by following him and reading the thoughts of people he came into contact with. He hadn't perfected his nocturnal mating habits at the time but he was trying."

I was taking notes, trying to keep up in shorthand and doodles and hoping I'd remember enough later to sort all out into a narrative.

"And he's a shape-shifter?" Bella asked.

"Not really, what he does is what's called a 'glamour.' He makes you see him as something else, but he doesn't really become that thing."

"Can he disappear?"

"I don't think so."

"Then how did he get away? I jumped right at him and he vanished . . ."

"Oh, yes, Falstaff came become a bird. A raven."

"And you said he could become the opposite gender . . ."

"Oh, yes, and that."

"So he _is _a shape-shifter . . ."

"I guess . . ."

Bella looked like she wanted to tear his head off but he continued to look bored by the whole conversation.

"Melany knows as much as I do from this point . . ."

He waved at me. I hoped it was because he was confirming that my research was correct and not just trying to pawn her off on me. I told them what I knew about the incubus-succubus legend and Aro interjected half-heartedly to correct or add small details.

We talked for a long time. Long enough that my legs were burning from standing there. The rest of them seemed unaffected by fatigue even the wolf and hybrid were just hanging out. Charlie also seemed a little bored but I think it was more because he was excited about being a vampire and less about the conversation. He spent a lot of time poking at various ordinary objects with the fascination of a drug addict staring at shifting TV static. He was so beautiful it made me uncomfortable and I tried to avoid looking at him. If I had known he was just gay it would have made it easier but he'd been with women his entire life until he met Aro. Who he was objectively happily married to. He's married. Married married married. I didn't usually find myself drooling over people but he was not a regular person and he smelled really—no, I didn't know how Aro's mind-reading worked but I knew he was wildly possessive and it would be very bad for him to know I was thinking unclean thoughts about his sexy vampire husband.

I decided then that it would be inadvisable to become a vampire just then if it meant taking off with them while in the grip of my rapidly developing Charlie crush.

God, a crush! On Charlie Swan of all people!

I'd encountered a few people I was pretty sure had supernatural connections in my life but I wouldn't have ever suspected that my utterly ordinary small town Police Chief patient would be the one to finally bring me into that world.

* * *

**END NOTES**: Okay. Sorry for the long delay. Melany is a little bit accidentally based on me here. She almost had a bigger role in the first story. I wrote part of a chapter where Charlie _doesn't_ cancel with her and Aro goes with him but it didn't feel right. I knew she would be involved in the sequel somehow though at that point.

Next chapter is the Aro POV + lemons. (Finally, right!?)

Aaaaand I might have Asperger Syndrome. So I'm gonna go get that all checked out this week. Yup. Yeah. Okay.


	9. Too Much

_AN~Lemon, bitchez! You only had to wait a fic and a half! This is imperfect but I'm in a very complexly troubled psychological state at the moment so please forgive any errors or confusing aspects. _

* * *

**Aro's POV**

He didn't need me anymore.

We hadn't had much time together after he woke up before it was necessary to dash off into the trees to escape those preposterously offended wolf creatures. They had known it would happen eventually just like they had with Bella. Their insistence that we not feed on humans was reasonable but not allowing a willing party to make the change on our side of the treaty line was just totalitarianism. A stupid way to rule, known by the stupidest and best of former totalitarian rulers.

I'd almost had trouble keeping up with him at first when we entered the trees and I was relieved when he insisted on carrying me even though I had to protest for show. I could stay close if he carried me. I knew he didn't need me to protect him. The rest of us might be in trouble if caught alone with more than one or two of those hairy beasts but he had dismissed the one that had jumped at us without effort.

He looked just like my Charlie still but also utterly transformed. His hair was actually greyer now. No, not grey, _silver._ As he'd aged it had greyed significantly and the texture had roughened but I didn't mind it. I didn't mind anything about his human imperfections. Now his hair was soft though and the color was deep and lovely, mesmerizing, subtly reflective. I tried not to stare but it was very difficult. He was perfect. My opinion, clouded by my love for him likely, was that he was the most beautiful male vampire I had ever seen. The venom had smoothed away the worry lines that marked his face, advertizing his extra-human level of concern for the injustices of the world, for the people he loved. He even worried about me, as sweet and silly it was, he did. He was unfailingly good. His goodness radiated through our life together and through the lives of everyone he encountered. If there was ever a just and honest governance in this world, Charlie Swan's long reign as Police Chief of the nearly insignificant little town of Forks, Washington, was it.

I had always thought him perfect but now everyone else would see it as well. It frightened me. I hoped selfishly that it was maybe only me but I knew that was foolish as soon as we entered Seattle. Everyone gawked, not just at him but at all of us. We were a striking party. Bella, with her odd, savage little face, unusual enough to be called exotic and fully comfortable in her new body now, was formidable in appearance. Little Renesmee, no longer little but still startlingly delicate and impossibly youthful and pristine. Even Jacob, despite of his harsh doggy odor, had his own kind of dark beauty. He was an opaque brush stroke against the pale canvas of his companions and it was an attractive complement to the whole.

And I was me. As I had always been. Shorter than average, my hair a little too dark to be really nice-looking against my face, much paler than the rest of them. I had never gotten by on looks and I knew that. I'd never felt slighted because of it. I was charming and that was enough. I had never met anyone I couldn't charm even though some of them resented me for it. And I still had the usual strange beauty of a vampire, but a world of airbrushing and plastic surgery and perfect veneers had lowered me—even with the addition of vampire physical enhancement—to merely average among my own kind next to some of these half-plastic humans.

However, despite my deeply entrenched beliefs about my own attractiveness, or lack thereof, I had always been profoundly vain. Everything I had control over, my hair and clothing and way of speaking were as clean and excellent as I could make them. And I was content with being more beautiful than most humans and more charming and refined and knowledgeable than most vampires.

I had been legitimately surprised when I'd realized Charlie was actually attracted to me in the beginning and not just charmed into submission. It seemed like if a man who had never been attracted to men before were to do so suddenly, it would be because that man that turned his head were extraordinarily attractive in some way. I didn't understand Charlie's feelings for me, honestly. That someone as good as him would ever love someone as unstoppably selfish and calculating as I had always been was incomprehensible to me, illogical.

But then the battle had changed me. It would have been difficult, I think, for something like that to not change any person dramatically. I was exposed when he found me and so his influence had had a profound effect. He didn't like me, but he still helped me and had nothing to gain from it. Aside from Carlisle it was benevolence beyond my experience and even with Carlisle his behavior seemed to be a way for him to atone for what he was even though he had never harmed a human. Merely wanting to was good enough for him to strive for sainthood in a state of eternal repentance for sins he'd never committed.

I was better now. Maybe not _good_, certainly not as good as Charlie, but I was better than I was before he found me and saved me from what would have surely been a very dark future had I remained in that house alone very much longer.

And Charlie, my Charlie, maybe it was his kindness and his purity that had done it, was a magnificent vampire. He seemed to inhabit his vampire body with the practiced ease of much older vampires. He was shockingly controlled and graceful and physically inviting. It was maddening. The humans stared at him openly and it angered me. I could smell their blood, the way the scent changed very slightly as their hearts beat faster and the noxious scent of their sex hormones rising from their pores as they eyed him and once the thoughts of a woman whose arm I brushed accidentally who was thinking extremely inappropriate things about him. He was a stranger to her and even if he wasn't, he certainly wouldn't do those types of things with _her_. She was grotesquely overweight and her hair was tinted very poorly. On top of it she was shrouded in cheap, unflattering clothing. She was repellant. And _he_ was mine. I didn't push her in front of an oncoming bus, but I considered it very seriously. I could have done it so easily and so quickly my fellows might not have seen it even but I realized bitterly that even though there were other reasons not to do it, I also would have felt guilty. Me, guilty! For killing some pointless little human being who wasn't even adding so much as an appealing exterior to the world she lived in! And I had killed so many already. Hundreds of thousands surely, but now, alien guilt. Charlie had done this to me. He'd made me question my belief that I had no soul. I didn't even know what a soul was but I knew if they existed, Charlie had one and if he did, I must to. A blackened, sad one but a soul still.

Now we were at Melany's. I had perched on a counter, trying to look unfazed by the events of the day. They were all talking but I wasn't really paying attention. I wasn't particularly intrigued by their little quest. I might have been once but now I only wanted the quiet life we'd just lost. I wanted our little white house and my sweet, adoring human friends. I'd known it would end because I couldn't stay there forever not aging like I was but I thought we had another few years at least. And then _Bella_ showed up. According to Leah, Falstaff had been around before Bella's reappearance but it still felt like it was her fault somehow. She just brought trouble everywhere she went.

I tried to look at everyone in the room equally, even counting for several seconds on each and hoping that the movement looking natural because I was trying not to stare at Charlie for a noticeably long amount of time. It was ridiculous, he was my husband, I should be able to look at him whenever I wanted but now I felt like I had a crush I had to hide so that people didn't mock me for pathetically liking someone so far above me in looks and temperament. I loved him too much. It hurt. I had always loved him too much but now that it felt like he was slipping from my reach, it was unexpectedly and unsettlingly painful.

I started paying attention again when the mood shifted from scheming to casual. Charlie said he needed to hunt and I said I would go and then hoped it wasn't too quickly, that it didn't sound as desperate as I felt.

_Dammit, this was insane._

"Of course you're going. I need someone to keep me in line . . ."

I was poised to jump from the counter but he suddenly caught me around the waist and threw me over his shoulder. I heard Melany laugh but it wasn't funny at all. It was embarrassing and undignified.

"Charlie Swan, put me down, now."

I was trying to sound commanding but also unconcerned but I knew it didn't come out that way. Just before we got to the door I saw Bella smirk and if I could have gotten away from him, I would have seen how she liked a nice seven story fall out a window.

"Charlie, someone is going to see us, this doesn't look right. Please stop."

But he waited until we were in the elevator before setting me back on my feet. My hair was a mess and I smoothed it, trying to regain my composure. He was grinning, watching me.

"That was very childish," I scolded.

"I don't care. It's fun finally being stronger than you."

"Fun for you," I said more stiffly than I meant.

He pulled me to him and kissed me under the ear, moving aside my carefully fixed hair. I tried not to react too strongly even though the pressure of his mouth, able to effect my skin in a more tangible way now caused an electrifying wave of want to sweep over my skin from the point where his lips touched.

We took to roofs and dashed down alleys to leave the city faster. Running was good, it was distracting. We had been in the trees for only a few minutes, far from the city but not where we would likely find anything to eat when he appeared in front of me so fast I collided with him. He touched my face and then pulled me against him roughly. I had thought about sex of course. I had always thought about sex. It was one other place where I thought I excelled but I was inordinately anxious about being with him as a vampire. I wondered if he would expect something spectacular from me now that I wasn't always just being as careful as possible. I didn't really know all that much about being with other men. I hadn't done it very often. I had actually thought there might be something with Caius when we'd met and I harbored an uncomfortable crush on him until he actually let me get close enough to read his mind and I found that he didn't think very much of me. He still toyed with me though and we had had a few encounters that never led to actual sex of any kind. And then Carlisle, of course. I never did anything at all with him because I knew I wanted him too much for that to be safe as I was married to Sulpicia by then but I was tragically in love with him the entire time he was with us and it hurt me more than I wanted to believe when he left. He'd confounded me with his animal diet but his gentleness, even while he judged me for my gluttonous eating habits, drew me.

I had thought we would probably have sex when we left Melany's together but I thought it would be after hunting, and that I would have time to prepare myself for it but now he was pushing me into a tree. The bark splintered behind me and I had to remind him gently to not tear my clothes because we couldn't go back to Melany's naked.

Still, we were nude faster than any humans could have been and despite my anxiety, I was terribly aroused. He kissed me, pressing close so I could feel his erection against my thigh and then turned me so I was facing the tree. After many years, Sulpicia and I had experimented with inviting others into our bed but I had not had anal sex performed on me a great number of times. I was always the one giving or simply watching as our temporary partner took her in front of me. I liked seeing that. She was beautiful and I liked knowing they wanted her and having her be mine to give when I wanted. I had loved her but I loved her like a possession. Sulpicia _belonged_ to me, worshiped me and I never thought of replacing her because she fulfilled the requirements of being my wife perfectly: She was lovely, elegant and obedient. Nothing like Charlie who I did not own. He owned me. He didn't obey me. He mocked me and then spoiled me. I loved it.

Even though he probably didn't have full awareness of his strength yet, I knew he would be careful. Charlie was always careful, he'd even been careful before when he couldn't possibly have hurt me. His sweetness was nearly heartbreaking. The way he treated me when he wasn't teasing me was almost painful because it didn't feel like something that should have belonged to me. The love Charlie seemed to have for me felt like something that should have belonged to a much better person who had earned that privilege.

He passed his hand down my back causing a wake of impossible heat to follow his fingers. He touched me carefully before inserting the tip of one finger into me a little ways. A sound I didn't have any control over broke from my lips and he continued slowly, letting my body acclimate to the intrusion before adding a second finger. He did this until I told him it was enough and then he removed his hand and I felt the tip of his erection take its place. He went slowly but it still hurt a little as my muscles resisted him. My fingers had dug inch deep trenches in the flesh of the tree and I was fighting sounds I couldn't allow to exit my lips. I was usually vocal during sex but it was in my control, sounds I chose to make, where I controlled the volume and tone. But these were feral and revealing and I concentrated on suppressing them.

This first part didn't last very long for either of us. I could have extended it as long as I wanted but after so long of wanting and needing to be with him like this it was more like inhaling a precious measure of oxygen after holding my breath for years. I felt the minute spasm of him coming inside me and heard him make the exquisite sound of disbelief every vampire makes on experiencing an orgasm for the first time in their new body. I didn't really recall what they had been like as a human but from the minds of humans I touched, I knew ours were exponentially more powerful. Enough to collapse a fragile human body in the impossible energy of their culmination.

He pulled out of me, spun me and kissed me aggressively, with a force we'd never been able to have before because of the need to avoid my teeth. I allowed a moan then and thought it sounded like I needed it to. He sank to the forest floor, pulling me down with him so I was straddling him. He directed my hips so I was positioned for him to enter me again. He kissed me while he did it, thrusting upwards slowly while I moved back onto him. He kept his hands on my hips, moving me how he wanted. With anyone else I would have thought they were using me for their own pleasure but he knew me, knew submitting to him was exciting for me. Or had been when it was willing. He really could physically bring about helplessness in me now and I hadn't had time to decide how I felt about that.

He traced one hand across my stomach and wrapped his fingers smoothly around my cock. He'd touched me innumerable times and his technique wasn't so different but the new ability to effect my skin made it far more intense. I came much quicker than I had intended the second time. It was embarrassing and desperate and exposed my lack of control over the situation, over his effect on me. He didn't seem to notice and flipped me onto my back finishing himself with my legs wrapped around his hips and his teeth on my throat, tugging gently at my skin.

I wasn't sure how long we went on like this, two hours? Three? Five? It wasn't important really I supposed. We weren't fucking the whole time, he just held me against him for long intervals, kissing me softly. His fingers explored my body and skipped lightly over my face, outlining my features carefully. He was looking at me with unbearable awe. Didn't he know how much less I was than him in every way now? How long would it take before he realized it?

Eventually we retrieved our clothes and hunted, searching until we found large animals, vicious carnivores, because their blood satiated more than herbivores. He was an elegant hunter. His movements as lovely and fascinating as his new remarkable face and the whole thing made my chest ache with fear for the time in which he would inevitably become aware of the inequality between us and moved on to someone better than me.

I was quiet as we left the trees, headed back to Melany's. A block from her apartment, on top of a building, he caught me and turned me out from him, putting his arms around me from behind and told me to look at the city with him. It was pretty, as beautiful a place as humans could create. A grey tangle of buildings and electric wires with its inhabitants flowing in and out of this maze in chaotic little patterns, irregular, but rhythmic as well.

It was a perfect moment. My thirst as controlled as it ever was drinking from animals, and this incredible and unreal being holding me like I deserved it, to be loved by such a person.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm relieved that you are safe at last."

"You're lying."

He released me and turned me to face him.

"Are you saying I'm not relieved?"

I was smiling a little, trying to use that same subtle charm that always worked on him when I needed to distract him.

"No, I mean you're not okay. What's going on?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"You do. I can tell you're not being honest. I can . . . see it. Or feel it. Something. I just know."

Did he have a power? Could he read minds?

"I'm just . . . it's been a long few days that's all."

"You're still lying. At least partially. Please be honest with me."

"You're different."

It was honest if not the whole truth.

"Do you not like me like this?"

"No, not that. I don't know who could not like you like this," I blurted. God, what was happening to me?

"So what is it?"

"You're just . . . perfect."

"You're upset that I'm perfect?"

"No, you just don't need m—anyone. You could do anything you wanted to now and you wouldn't need any help from anyone."

"Like you?"

"I am technically anyone . . ."

"Do you think I don't want you anymore?"

"I don't know."

"A lie. Do you actually believe I don't want you?"

I couldn't answer. I didn't want him to know the truth and he would apparently know I was lying if I said anything.

"Listen to me. I turned my entire life upside down for you. I risked my job, relationships with everyone I've ever known, my own life to be with you and having you question my feelings now is a little bit insulting."

"Um—"

"For a person as smart as you are, you're a little bit dumb, baby."

"Excuse me?"

"I might look different and I'm obviously well aware of the effect we have on humans, I didn't fall in love with a guy because you were dull but I'm not going to run off now looking for something else just because I could probably gather up a string of human supermodels. Things are the same now as they were before, I was with you then because I loved you and there was no one else like you. And, fortunately for humanity, there is still only one you. The thought of replacing you with anyone is frankly ridiculous. You're not replaceable, you're magic, and I love you as much now as I did before the attack. There's only one you, and I feel pretty lucky that that one you is mine even though you're a giant pain in the ass pretty much all the time."

He kissed me possessively and I melted against him involuntarily. He made love to me there on that roof above the city, treating me gently, making me believe that he loved me both in word and caress. I had never thought much of people's obsession with "making love." Both the concept and terminology were silly to me. People fucked. Even when they did it slowly, it was still just a biological need to quench a hunger. But this wasn't like that, this was too personal. The extreme intimacy had its own vulgarity, it was indecent. It tore my heart from my chest and made it his in a way I'd never experienced. A part of me shattered when I came but the pieces didn't scatter, held in place by his soft touch and they hung there floating around and framing that terrible part of me that I hadn't seen since Didyme's death, the part I had closed off so I wouldn't have to face my own betrayal of her. A punishment for my crime, to prevent real joy, real love. Because I had taken hers, and Marcus', it was necessary then to forfeit my own forever.

We stayed there after talking about his new ability for a few minutes and he'd said he was experiencing it already before we'd left Melany's but with so many people in the room, the feelings were all scrambled and it wasn't until we were alone that the sensation gained clarity. He could sense my emotions, feel them himself in a projected way.

Renesmee and Jacob were sleeping when we returned but Melany was still awake, talking to Bella. There were notebooks and papers spread all over her kitchen table and Bella had obviously been filling her in on the supernatural. Like _she_ knew anything. They should have waited for me.

They turned when we came in. Bella smiled at Charlie. She looked a little sad but I was sure she was probably also relieved that he was finally safe as an immortal. Melany looked Charlie over briefly and didn't register anything in her expression or demeanor but I saw her pupils dilate and smelled her arousal. She was attracted to him now. She hadn't been before. A surge of mad jealousy raced through me followed by annoyance. I glanced at Charlie and he smiled affectionately. My annoyance rolled over to anger. I hated this. I couldn't function having someone actually know my motivations. I had perfected every external reaction so that no one ever knew what I was thinking or feeling and just believed the thing that I projected but now he would know every time.

He kissed my forehead and whispered, "I won't use it against you if I can help it."

Bella cocked her head, she'd obviously heard and wanted to know what it was Charlie had to use against me. I felt smug that I knew something she didn't and Charlie laughed and kissed me again.

"Would have known that one before, Sweetie. Nothing's changed."

God, I loved him so much. I loved him in a way that was beyond forbidden: more than myself, more than power. I would give my own life to save him. If I had loved her as much, she would be alive, or at least not dead by my hand.

There was a new layer to that newly suspected soul of mine now. A pure white one formed by my love for Charlie. And the unselfish purity of it made a mockery of her death.

If I weren't already damned before, I would be now.

* * *

END NOTES: Oh man, writing this was intense. I've been reluctant to write an Aro POV because I wasn't sure it would turn out well but this came remarkably easily. Probably because I am an insecure, emotionally stunted loonycakes who does not identify with the rest of the human race.


	10. Away

AN~I know I _always_ say, "This isn't edited enough," but this time it's even moreso than usual. These will be drafts with minor grammar and clarification fixes from here out and the chapters are very short. It speeds up and jumps around and I'm honestly not sure how comprehensible it will be. It's fun at least! Pretty sure it's fun . . .

* * *

**Bella's POV**

Aro's ambivalence about tracking down Falstaff infuriated me. He'd tried and nearly succeeded in killing Charlie and now that Charlie's transformation seemed to be okay, Aro's concern evaporated and he was just wandering around with a stupid look on his face like a teenage girl with her first boyfriend.

We still didn't know what effect Falstaff's poison had had on Charlie although his purple eyes suggested there was something. I was the only one who seemed at all concerned about the danger involved in not knowing what that was.

I had spent most of the night after they left to hunt looking over Melany's research. I was impressed at how much she'd discovered and how accurate her information was, at least as far as I knew, about everything, especially vampires and I had to assume her other conclusions about things I wasn't familiar with were equally well-documented. I corrected small things but not much. When I told her the differences in eye color between us based on our diets and our level of hunger she practically shouted scratching something out on her notes and writing a new line.

"Aro is such a sneaky little punk. I tried to trick him into slipping up so many times but his guise of 'a regular old human' was flawless."

"Yeah, he's . . . slippery."

"So you don't like him?"

"It's personal."

She didn't seem offended and went right back to her papers, looking for new questions for me. We'd been working for hours but she didn't seem tired. And even though we'd been up all night she hadn't drank anything caffeinated. Only water. This chick was weird. No wonder she was so tight with Aro. They had a weird little weirdo club going on.

When they'd reappeared around dawn I had tried very hard not to imagine what they had been doing that entire time. They certainly weren't hunting for six fucking hours. I remembered how much I had wanted to tear Edward's clothes off basically every second for the first few weeks and while I didn't begrudge my dad a sex life, it was just creepy him feeling that same way toward Aro. I wanted to tear something off of him but it wasn't his clothes. Skin might be sufficient. The smug, stupid—

"Bella."

"Sorry, what?"

Jacob was waving his hand around in front of my face exaggeratedly.

"Renesmee and me are going for food. Are you fine with us being out in the big, scary city without you?"

"Yeah. That's fine. Just make sure you have your cell on."

"Always on, Mom, no worries."

I hated when he called me "Mom" but it wasn't unjustified. I had found myself turning into a nagging, worrying, annoying _mom_ beast the last few years and I hated feeling that way. I was only twenty-three technically. I was supposed in be in college sleeping with dirty guys in bands and shaving my head after dreadlocks gone wrong. Sleeping with guys. I was still a young vampire and my sex drive hadn't disappeared with my husband unfortunately. I couldn't think about being with someone new yet. Especially not while Edward might still be alive somewhere. I had believed him dead. I _thought_ I had seen him fall but maybe I was mistaken? Aro not finding a body had given me a terrible hope. It was stupid. The only way he could be alive was if he'd jumped back out of the pit but he never would have left that battlefield while Aro still lived.

Unless he was looking for us . . .

No. He was gone. I needed to start really believing it before I went crazy.

Charlie and Aro had spent the morning being moony and not much help in deciding where we would go looking for the incubus and it was Melany who came up with the idea of looking at police reports for rapes as a way to narrow our search. It wasn't solid, he might not even be in the country, we could spend the rest of our existence tracking him with no luck. I brushed that off. We'd find him. My need for vengeance went beyond his attack on Charlie. Maybe I needed a new enemy now that I couldn't have Aro anymore, someone to punish for the ugly turn my life had taken. And a guy who had been raping people for thousands of years was as good as Aro.

I was able to finally coax Charlie out of his love haze to try to get the information we needed to infiltrate the police's reporting network midday. But now being a missing person having not shown up for work in Forks for several days leaving an empty house behind, he couldn't use any contacts to assist us and it turned out police jurisdictions were a bit secretive and not at all good about sharing information with each other anyway.

Instead I spent hours reading police reports from every city in America going alphabetically. But since there were around 20,000 places you could probably call distinct towns or cities, I didn't get very far. Melany helped until she finally succumbed to the human need for rest. She made a sleepy comment about the oddness of going to sleep with three known vampires in her house and then gave Aro what looked like a sort of drunken friend hug and left us alone.

I ordered Aro to help me after that since I now knew he actually knew how to use the internet better than Charlie and maybe me. I hadn't been very technologically advanced as a human and we hadn't settled down long enough to learn in the last five years. We bought disposable cell phones in each city for when we were separated and I had never even touched a SmartPhone as odd as that was in this current world.

Around noon, Jacob and Renesmee came back in time to see a news broadcast about Charlie and Aro.

A blond reporter with a weird plastic smile who looked too much like she belonged in California to live in Seattle offered a voice-over to shots of "downtown" Forks, the police station and a few snap shots of Aro and Charlie.

"Police are still in search of clues about the sudden disappearance of the Chief of Police of the little town of Forks. The home of Charlie Swan which he shared with his husband, Aro Swan, was searched and they released details this morning that there was evidence of possible violence in the house—"

"Oh damn, the sheets," Aro said.

"—but haven't revealed the details. Missing credit cards and other important documents suggest robbery."

Then the picture of them standing on courthouse steps with all those other couples.

"Townspeople close to the couple said that while some were initially uncomfortable with the pair's homosexuality they were eventually accepted and loved by nearly everyone and that they couldn't imagine anyone wanting to do the couple harm. Aro Swan was actively involved in many community activities and was currently serving on City Council. Many stated that they are deeply concerned about the couple's disappearance and are praying for their safe return."

Aro and Charlie shared the kind of intimate glance that is always uncomfortable to witness from the outside, revealing a sort of profound sadness and I felt awful seeing it. I had never lost the kind of home they just had. The closest I had come was when I left Arizona and I knew it didn't really compare.

"We'll go back someday . . ." Charlie said, hugging him and kissing the top of his head.

"All of my friends will have died . . ."

The only human left that I cared for was Renesmee and she was assured to live for a very long time so I couldn't identify with the real sorrow of that statement but I heard it in his voice and it caused another shift in my sympathies for him, one I didn't fight because the emotion was so pure and human it wasn't possible to keep a hard heart against it.

" . . . I wish I could have said goodbye but we couldn't leave the house because of the wolves."

Renesmee hugged them both and I saw Aro's face over her shoulder. Happiness and pain and again guilt and I decided I would attempt to stop punishing him for things none of us could change. It wasn't really making me feel better and it would only hurt Charlie if I continued. I wasn't quite ready to hug him yet but I put my hand on his arm and said I was sorry. He thanked me quietly and went back to Charlie's arms. They left together a few minutes after that and were gone for some time. I didn't know where they went since it was a rare sunny day but I was pretty sure they were having a sort of funeral for the people they knew whose funerals' they would never get to attend and who would die without ever being seen by either of them again.

We decided to simply start moving and begin our investigation in Oregon where we were less likely to be recognized. Aro wanted Melany to come with us but she wasn't quite ready to abandon her life and assured us we would have a home base at her apartment whenever we needed it.

We rented a car and after some argument about who should drive the honor—or punishment—was given to Jacob at least for the first leg since his drive to protect Renesmee made him a hyper-vigilant chauffeur. I knew I was a little agitated to drive and Charlie and Aro were too lovestruck to be useful for anything. I was grateful that they at least reigned themselves in enough to not spending the whole time making out in the backseat but Aro and Renesmee were rapidly developing a relationship I wasn't sure I was ready for yet. Aro had been enchanted by her when they first met and I tried to swallow the hurt I felt seeing them bond and spotting her asleep against his shoulder in the rear view mirror a few hours in.

We were all nomads now. I hadn't liked doing it before and I wasn't looking forward to it now but I was at least happy about one thing: Having my father back. My last family member. Everyone I loved now with me and as safe as any group of immortal beings with unlimited resources could be.

* * *

END NOTES: My brain has shut down pretty solidly and editing this in any real way has been nearly impossible.

I'm seeing a neuropsychologist on Tuesday morning and an Autism specialist next week but after the massive amount of research I've done it's very obvious that I do in fact have Asperger's Syndrome and the reason no one ever caught it was because it manifests so differently in females than it does males. So basically my entire view of myself for the past thirty years and my perception of the world has been completely restructured in the past two weeks and I'm only barely dealing with it at the present time. I'm still the same person but knowing _why_ I'm like that is both a relief and extremely painful. It's sort of like always suspecting you were an alien because the world doesn't "feel right" and then landing on your home planet and realizing you _are_ an alien and feeling at home for the first time but also sad for how long you were lost without knowing there were others like you.

/journal entry author's note and explanation for why this story is broken


	11. Grandpa and Me

**Renesmee's POV**

Some days I thought I was no longer in love with him and those were good days, especially while things were so confusing in general. Mom's methodical, obsessive need to find Falstaff overshadowed everything else. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. He was obviously a being that should be ended but I did not know if that meant we should be the ones to do it. I felt like a very lame superhero team.

We had jumped coasts abruptly, not yet halfway across the states. We were in Salt Lake City and had been for a week. Mom insisted she "had a feeling" but nothing came of it. Then we saw a news bulletin that there was a nationwide hunt on for a serial rapist and the last reported victims were in Baltimore, Maryland. We were on a plane that night. We'd driven most of the way and I was personally exhausted from being in a car. I had started to loathe highways and those big green, reflectorized signs that counted down the miles between us and our next city.

We had never flown first class before because Mom had forced us to live frugally for the most part so I was grateful that Aro was spoiled and we ended up up front in blessedly uncramped seats with enough legroom that I could stretch my short legs out almost all the way.

We hadn't had time to book tickets online and were given the last seats available. Mom made that slightly irritated face she couldn't quite hide when I was seated next to Aro. We could have of course switched seats easily but it would have meant her saying something and verbalizing her silent disapproval of our friendship. She moved up front with Grandpa without looking at us again but her rigid posture was telling enough.

Aro smiled at me and kept his arms in his lap and away from the arm rest between us. He was always careful never to touch my bare skin although I kind of liked the idea that we could have had secret, silent conversations that way. I didn't, however, want him knowing about Jacob. I felt embarrassed feeling that way about a person who didn't share my feelings. I knew it was something everyone had experienced at some point but being smarter and quicker than nearly everyone I met had turned me into a person that expected myself to also me better at controlling emotion, being wise about relationships. But it wasn't like language or chemistry or even music. Interacting with people wasn't something you could memorize. I knew how to _charm_ people, I think Aro and I had that in common and along with our abilities to communicate with people's minds, it made me feel a kinship with him that I had with on one else. I did not have any peers and even though I had never had a chance to settle down and make friends, I felt that I would have had a hard time doing so even if we had.

He was sitting by the window and I leaned over a little ways so I could watch the city fall away under us. He was fiddling with his boarding pass, running his fingers over the letters in the name of our destination city like they were in braille rather than just slightly thick black ink.

"Have you ever been to Baltimore, Renesmee?"

I had tried to get him to call me "Nessie" or "Ness" but I think he was afraid Mom would try to find a way to shave his head if she saw him being too familiar with me.

"Nope. You?"

He made an odd face like he was trying to remember something from a long time ago and then shook his head.

"I don't think so but it sounds so familiar . . ."

I knew mom would be able to hear our conversation even though they were two rows ahead and I hated having to censor myself to spare her feelings.

"I'm glad grandpa has you. He's really happy."

"It's still very odd to hear him referred to as someone's grandfather."

"Because you think he's _hot._"

I heard Mom make a small huffing sound I and enjoyed it thoroughly.

"He's nice looking."

"You can say it, we're related, so really, you're just complimenting me anyway because I definitely got my looks passed down through Grandpa Swan."

"If I say it he'll use it to tease me later."

"Aw. You guys are so cute it's almost annoying."

He smiled in a way that looked sort of shy and then dropped his voice into the lowest audible whisper possible.

"You mother doesn't think so."

"She can still hear you," I whispered back.

"I know but now she'll feel like she's eavesdropping if she keeps listening . . ."

I didn't stifle my laugh and knew I'd pay for it later with a load of frostiness. I switched back to a normal voice and kind of hoped Aro's comment would compel her to tune us out.

"Do you really think we'll be able to stop Falstaff?"

"No."

"Then why are we doing this?"

"I go where he goes."

"Why don't you think we'll win? He's one guy, we have three of you and Jacob. I know I'm pretty useless unless we're going to talk him to death but you guys are pretty awesome."

"If we were to gain an advantage, it wouldn't be our strength or speed that would assist us. He hasn't survived this long by letting himself be physically vulnerable. Recall that that was why he was reluctant to become like us. He feels we're too weak. So he was looking for something stronger and it seems likely he's found it. I daresay your abilities might be more useful. You have the kind of intelligence that absorbs and comprehends information quickly and makes intuitive connections the rest of us can't. I feel it will be quick-thinking and not muscle which will be our greatest weapon if we're unfortunate enough to get close to him."

"Are you afraid of him?"

"Yes."

"Are you afraid of anything else?"

He didn't speak out loud. He pulled the magazine out of the seat pocket in front of him and made a gesture for a pen. I dug one out of my bag. It had hot pink ink. He looked at it and smiled. He flipped the pages until he reach one with a lot of white space and wrote:

_Losing him. _

I took the pen and wrote back:

_He's not going anywhere, he loves you._

_We can die. The first year of a new vampire's life is the most dangerous, only a third of vampires survive it and your mother is making it more dangerous. F almost killed him once already, it feels foolish to give him another chance._

_Why haven't you told her any of this?_

He smirked a little.

_I hope you won't think I'm being judgmental but, have you ever attempted to change her mind with reason?_

I covered my mouth to keep from laughing even though she wouldn't know we were talking about her now.

Our conversation shifted to less serious topics and we got several annoyed looks from our neighboring passengers for our frequent laughter and constant talking. I eventually got tired and fell asleep in a cramped position across his lap with about six of those paper-fabric covered airline pillows. He smoothed my hair when I first lay down and said, "Thank you," quietly.

"For what?"

"Not hating me."

"You're easy to love."

He didn't answer. He squeezed my arm gently.

"Wake me up before we start to descend. The pressure messes with my ears if I sleep through it."

"I will not fail you, I promise."

And he didn't. He woke me by shaking my shoulder and saying my name quietly to me. I sat up but moved so I could still lean on him until my sleepiness wore off. We watched silently while our plane descended through the clouds and the black landscape of Maryland appeared below us, first bleak mountain ranges and then lights and roads and the vast, clustering network of our target city rising quickly.

The plane shifted smoothly back and forth as the pilot corrected our trajectory for landing. Just as it came level again after the biggest tilt, I saw it. A quick, black shape swooped by and it was so fast that I didn't really register it until it happened again and was lit up by one of the lights on our wing.

"Aro . . ."

"I saw it."

"Is it?"

"Yes. No regular bird could . . ."

I put my face close to his ear so I didn't start a panic and asked if he thought Falstaff could crash our plane.

"I don't know but I think he just wants us to know he's out there. It's likely he lured us here."

"Mom, Grandpa, look out your window."

"We saw him," she said in a low voice that drifted back to us, inaudible to the humans between.

"What do we do?"

"Nothing," Aro said. "We can't do anything until we know what he's planning . . ."

* * *

END NOTES: I accidentally typed "feels" instead of "feelings" in here at one point and I really wanted to leave it. Also I've realized how many blatant Aspie behaviors I've given my characters without realizing it. Sort of hilarious in a really sad way. Also, Baltimore. Heh. I couldn't help myself.


	12. Unholy Practices

Rosalie's POV

When he'd first told me that the Volturi had survived the fight, I didn't believe him but he had pictures of Aro and while I couldn't of course be sure that they were recent, I was pretty sure he'd never worn jeans and t-shirt before or shopped at Forks Outfitters. Then he showed me a newspaper clipping of Aro with a headline that announced an election. He said he'd lost the part of the clipping with the article because they been cut separately from different parts of the page.

It was enough to plan for their arrival. He said he was sure they'd come after him and had asked me for protection. I wasn't sure exactly what he was, obviously not human and not a vampire either, but his hatred for the Volturi was enough for me to team up with him at least until they were gone.

Aaron was driving and I was watching out the back window of the SUV. The opposite door opened and Falstaff got in next to me. He looked scared and anxious.

"Their plane just landed."

"Are you sure they were on it?"

"I didn't see them but I saw the landing confirmed on the monitors. We'll just have to wait."

"I don't understand why they're on a commercial airliner . . ."

"They're in hiding."

That didn't really make sense but it didn't really matter. If they walked out of that airport and into my territory, it would be over. I felt venom rise and pool in my mouth, coating my tongue and teeth. Being so close to finally bringing justice to the people who killed me family, my mate, was making me feel a little insane. I felt like I did while tracking down Royce and his foul cohorts. The satisfaction of killing each of them and him last were some of the best moments of my life, third only to meeting Emmett and meeting my beautiful, perfect niece. It hurt to think about her. I had no idea where she was, I couldn't think about her being dead, that lovely, sweet-smelling infant who'd slept in my arms and listened to my stories and the little girl who'd made up pretty nicknames for me in every new language she learned.

"Who did you say was still alive?"

"Aro and Marcus. Caius escaped his punishment in death already but his wife lives as does Aro's. And Felix."

Good. None of them had offensive talents. Felix had only his brute strength but he would be helpless against my guard. I had been here an hour already and I was becoming impatient. I had been waiting for years with no word of anything and then Falstaff had arrived three months before and told me about this. He'd said he was supposed to be in Forks himself as one of Carlisle's witnesses but had arrived late, weeks after everything had happened and had been watching them ever since but hadn't had the resources to attack them alone.

"There!" he said finally.

I just stopped myself from leaping from the car and enacting a shocking scene of vampire on vampire violence on them in the parking lot. But secrecy was my job now and I took it seriously. It would have been like Aro—no, I wasn't like him. The Volturi were evil and greedy. We were protectors.

"Calm," he said and turned my face from the window, tracing his fingers down my cheek. He wasn't as warm as a human. His touch was the temperature of a warm breeze. I wasn't attracted to him physically but I had had unwelcome sexual feelings a few times when he'd touched me.

"Look," he directed me back to the window and there they were. Sulpicia came out first, looking sour, followed by Athenodora who was trailed closely, protectively by Felix, then Aro and Marcus. They were holding hands but I had seen them do this before when they'd first arrive in Forks that day. So that Marcus and Caius could communicate, still, this looked different. They looked like they were—

"Did Aro just _kiss_ him?"

"Are you shocked that they dabble in unholy practices?"

I didn't know if he was referring to being gay or adultery but it didn't matter. While I didn't care about the first, I was opposed to the second and one or both of them were happening.

They congregated on the sidewalk, talking.

"Which car rental place did you use, Aro?" Sulpicia asked. She spoke to him in a tone of forced calm.

"Budget."

"The lot's over there . . ." Athenodora turned and pointed.

"Do you think he's still close by?" Sulpicia asked.

"I don't know. I imagine we won't see him until he wants us to and it won't be pleasant for us when that happens."

"So they do know you're after them . . ." I said. We had assumed but I was hoping a little bit that they didn't know so we could surprise them if possible.

"Aro knows everything. I think they caught onto me only a few weeks ago though . . ."

"Get as close as you can to that lot, Aaron."

He started the car and we pulled out of our space and drove right past them. Unless they were looking closely, they wouldn't see me through the heavily tinted windows that allowed us to travel by car in the daytime and we parked on the edge of the lot and waited as they walked there.

Athenodora was skipping a little and Sulpicia gave her a reproachful look. She stopped but was still grinning. She looped her arm through Felix's as they walked. Marcus had his arm across Aro's shoulders now. He'd lost most of that heavy, sad look he'd had before and I watched him drop a kiss on top of Aro's head. Guess Aro still hadn't told him about how he'd killed his own sister, Marcus' wife. I looked forward to doing it before I snapped that little bastard's head off in front of his new boyfriend.

They went down two rows and got into an SUV not much different than mine although with less tint on the windows.

"Wait until they're out of the lot and then follow at a distance. If they start making weird turns like they're trying to shake us, causally turn the opposite way."

I unlocked my phone and started a four person conference call. I waited for everyone to answer and then began giving instructions.

"James, they're in a pewter SUV, New York plates, number IHA 236."

"I'll put out an APB. Want them stopped right away?"

"No, just say they're suspected of being terrorists and need to be followed everywhere they go. No one should go near of attempt to arrest them."

"Got it."

"Helen, get your daughters together."

"They've been waiting, Rose. Just say when."

"Good. Andrew, find out if they have cell phones and if we can tap them."

"So on it."

"Julian, how's everything at home?"

"Just finished setting up for your arrival. Helen can come now if she wants."

"We're on our way," she said.

I instructed everyone else to hang up aside from Julian.

"Everything will be okay, baby. I'm not going to let anything happen to you," he said as soon as all the other lines dropped.

"I know. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried that they'll get away."

"They can't. Our net has no holes."

"Alright, I'll see you soon."

"Love you."

"You too."

I had only ever answered that way to him saying he loved me. _You too_. I couldn't say "I love you" to anyone. My mate was dead and while I didn't know if you could find a new one, Julian wasn't it. I liked him, he was a good man, but he wasn't mine the way Emmett had been.

"I've given them all descriptions," Falstaff said. "You should go home and relax. Your people are well qualified to handle them I am certain. You've trained them beautifully."

He ran his hand down my arm and I felt it reverberate over my skin. I think part of the reason why he had this effect on me was that he reminded me of Emmett. He didn't resemble him directly, this man was slender and not muscled and his face was delicate and maybe a little girly, but his eyes.

He had Emmett's eyes exactly.

Like he'd stolen them.

* * *

END NOTES: When I finished this chapter all I could thing about was what an infernal bastard Falstaff is.


	13. A Dark Haze of Purple

**Charlie's POV**

He'd been looking paler lately, even for a vampire. I knew he wanted us to leave and not chase Falstaff anymore but I knew Bella wasn't going to give up and I couldn't let her and Renesmee go off alone after that guy. I'd been trying to convince Aro that we needed to tell Bella about my other ability but he was convinced she would freak out.

We didn't really have a plan. We'd decided to find a hotel and strategize in our room. Aro, who was bizarrely the only own with a SmartPhone, was looking up hotels and wearing an agitated expression.

"I think we have a tail," Jacob said.

I smiled at his use of TV cop language. Everyone but Aro turned to look out the back.

"Why would he have an SUV if he can fly?" Bella said skeptically with a note of annoyance.

"I don't know, Bella. _He's a psychopath_. That thing's been following us since we left the airport though."

"The driver looks human," I said. There were people in back but their faces were hidden by headrests. "Just drive like you don't suspect anything. Maybe we can get a look if they get closer when we stop. Or I could go look . . ."

Aro looked up then.

"No."

"I think they would see you, Grandpa. Humans don't usually jump from moving cars . . ." Renesmee said amused.

"No, but . . . Jacob turn left and go slow for a minute. Then find a stoplight or a stop sign. I just need them standing still for a second."

I rolled down my window halfway. "Oh, and leave this window open, okay?"

"Charlie, no!"

He grabbed my arm but aside from the fact that I was much stronger, my arms weren't exactly grabbable once I was a bird. I was transformed and gone out the window the second after we turned. I stayed low so they wouldn't see where I had originated and flew toward the buildings and out of sight. I heard Bella shrieking and swearing at Aro and I despite the perilous nature of the situation, I gave the bird version of a laugh and swooped around in a deep arch, and followed the second car above them in their blind spot. I descended carefully until I was just below the level of their tinted back window. If anyone saw this behavior they'd probably drive off the road but it was the best way so I could be close when they stopped. It was a minute before I saw a large intersection ahead. The light was green and Jacob slowed, trying to catch it on red. It turned yellow and he stopped.

I hoped Bella had stopped screaming because if they'd kept the window open like I'd asked, even someone who wasn't a vampire could hear her. I swooped out smoothly and flew right by their windows, hoping I would just look like a regular bird even though it was odd behavior for any bird. Maybe they would think I was a messed up pigeon although I didn't think there were lot of pure white pigeons who looked exactly like slightly oversized doves around . . .

I twisted to see inside as soon as I was past the tinted back windows. I only saw the person on the right side and I nearly flew right into our car in shock. I shot upward away from both cars and circled. I guessed I couldn't be certain, as she was a bit blond and beautiful in that generic Hollywood way but I was almost sure the woman I had just seen was Rosalie Cullen.

I dived right back toward our car. It wouldn't matter if they saw us now because we could stop running now that I knew our pursuers were not just friends, but Bella and Renesmee's family. We had someone to actually _help us_ even. It was so good and unexpected that I wasn't paying attention to anything around me. Relief had made me careless and when I was hit by a mass of black feathers it knocked me far off course. I felt claws punch through the dense layer of my coat and cut into my skin. I flailed, felt myself falling. It was definitely Falstaff, I felt the drowsiness I had experienced before when he'd bitten me as a human as his burning, purple poison flowed into my veins and I experienced the total paralysis it brought with it and then we were going lower but not falling. He was carrying me. We shot through the open window of the second car and he dropped me in the middle of the backseat and landed next to me.

He was human—or humanoid at least—again in a few seconds, a haze of dark purple mist hung for a few seconds before dissipating out the open the window.

I was on my side and I had a nearly perfect panorama with included both of their faces and the ceiling of the car. Rosalie was looking at me like she wanted to crush me into a pile of feathery guts.

"I didn't know he could turn into a bird . . ." She sounded extremely unsettled.

"The Volturi have more secrets than will ever be learned I'm sure."

Volturi? Maybe they had only seen Aro and thought we were them. But what had he told her? _He_ knew who we were and it would be obvious once _she_ saw us who we were. He must have told her we'd all joined the Volturi. It seemed a little too ridiculous to be believed but I didn't actually know Rosalie that well and seeing her up close with that murderous look was scary enough to confirm we were in definite trouble.

"Can you change him back?"

"He'll be able to transform once the sedative wears off."

And then I'll tell her about you, you evil little punk. I felt so sleepy but I was afraid I would die if I drifted off. I managed to stay conscious for a few minutes before I couldn't fight it. And I fell asleep with my eyes open, the lids frozen in place by his poison.

* * *

END NOTES: I wasn't quite sure if I should to use "Cullen" or "Hale" as Rosalie's last name but I went with Cullen because Charlie's the kind of guy who wouldn't really recall if she had a different last name than the rest of her adopted family. She's just a Cullen to him.


	14. Family

**Bella's POV**

We barely caught Aro before he leaped from the car. It took Jacob and I both to hold him. The black car swerved past us and sped through the red light ahead. Jacob followed them but they were driving dangerously and we couldn't risk the same speeds with Renesmee in the car. Finally I told him to stop and go find the hotel, Aro and I would follow them on foot.

Aro was more than ready and had jumped from the car and was almost out of sight before we'd even stopped. I caught up to him and we changed course into the trees on the side of the road to stay out of sight of other cars but they had slowed to normal speed when our car stopped following and we kept up easily. We followed them out of town and through the woods for ten minutes before they slowed and turned into a long drive. We dashed ahead, hoping we could hide and get them when they stopped. What we found was so surprising though that we halted in the trees just staring. It was a massive rock wall but it looked man-made. It was just smooth rock, almost as high as some of the taller trees around. The SUV approached and stopped and then a second later and, like the London entrance to Diagon Alley, the wall opened into a crumbling, shifting hole and they drove through it. The road continued on the other side without a break and at the end of it was a massive mansion with large, golden creatures prowling its vast lawn. Were those _lions?_

A person stepped into the road, a petite boy with dark skin and hair. He had his hands up in front of him like he was making a peace gesture to a person holding a gun on him and the wall closed smoothly blocking out the house and the car and sweet little Egyptian Benjamin, somehow caught up with Falstaff and, hopefully unwittingly, one of Charlie's captors.

"Wha—?"

Aro speechless. An occurrence almost as shocking as what we'd just seen. We could have jumped the wall easily but it was pretty obviously the stupidest idea ever. If those were regular lions we could have taken them easily but that seemed extremely unlikely.

"We'd better go find Jacob and Renesmee . . ."

He nodded but didn't speak. He just stood there, staring at the wall where the SUV had vanished. I pulled on him and he didn't move. I wondered if I would have to physically remove him but after another minute of pulling and finally coaxing gently, he turned and followed me.

I didn't know Seattle well but it didn't take us long to find the hotel with Aro's GPS and we called Jacob's cell phone once we were outside to make sure they were there. They gave us a room number and we went up, taking the stairs to reach the fourth floor faster.

They were quiet when they let us in, our faces no doubt giving away the dire nature of our experience. Aro was still silent and I was forced to recount what we'd seen alone. Renesmee immediately hugged Aro who stood limply without responding. She made him sit and he stayed there, staring out the window for hours while we futilely attempted to plan against something with so many unknown factors it seemed laughable to even _consider_ a plan. Any plan we could come up with was probably as useful as just busting through the wall and storming their dumb little castle.

It was full light out now and a blaringly sunny day so we would be forced to hide until nightfall anyway. I insisted that Aro and I should go alone because it would be insane to take even Jacob and Renesmee even moreso but Aro spoke for the first time and said that Renesmee would probably be more useful than we could foresee right then.

"Sure, Aro, just as long as the mega-lions don't eat her, she'll be fine!"

"You're such a Cullen, Isabella, I don't intend to stroll across their lawn and knock on the front door. A place that big is bound to have many weak spots and we'll be able to find them tonight when just you and I go back to look for them."

"And then what?"

"Then we wait another day and go back tomorrow night to put whatever foolhardy plan we have into action."

I was surprised that he wanted to wait that long to get to Charlie. If it had been Edward, I would have been there already. But he was known for his patience. And since it had so far paid off in three thousand years of life, I was content to let him take the lead for now.

We kept the TV on to news stations all day, not even sure what we could possibly be looking for but hoping for something useful.

I was still insanely pissed that Aro had kept the fact that Charlie could become a bird secret and the only reason I wasn't still screaming at him was because he's fallen into that creepy state of near catatonia only speaking to add or disagree with some plan or another ocassionally. Otherwise he only stared out the window unmoving, not even blinking for hours. I felt bad for him and thankfully the bitterness I had felt before about my sympathy was mostly gone so it wasn't as painful anymore.

As it started to shade toward evening, I went and sat across from him.

"Aro."

His face regained a flicker of life but he didn't turn.

"We should go as soon as the sun sets so we have more time."

"Yes, I think that's wise . . ."

"Okay. Do you want to change or anything? Probably a good idea to wear dark clothes . . ."

"Yes. Yes, of course. That's a good thought."

He got up and found dark pants and a shirt in his suitcase and changed quickly.

I was watching the progress of the sun against the buildings. I thought we could probably leave earlier. The city would block the sun directly and late-day sun didn't affect our skin as brilliantly anyway. I hugged both Jacob and Renesmee. Aro did the same only patting Jacob on the shoulder rather than giving a hug.

"Good luck guys. You're kind of my favorite leeches and all so don't let her do anything too dumb, Aro."

Aro smiled a little bit but it looked dull.

We took the stairs again and then stood in the alcove in front of the door of the hotel, charting a course up the street that would allow us to avoid the few remaining patches of deep yellow sunlight splashing through the spaces between the skyscrapers. I was about to step out when he caught my arm.

"Isabella?"

He'd been calling me that all day but it didn't sound rude, it sounded like a title.

"Yeah?"

"I'm very sorry for what happened with Edward. I can't—"

And then I did something I probably wouldn't have believed I would ever do seven months ago: I hugged him. And in that moment, if not yet an adopted parent, Aro became my family.

"Let's go make sure we can save our Charlie then."

His demeanor became less mechanical and we stepped into the street together.

It took twenty minutes to get back. We followed the driveway to the wall and then got into the trees so we could see over as we circled the estate, accessing the situation. Those lion-things were prowling the whole front of the property. Around the back we found a huge terrace with opulent topiary trees and fountains everywhere. It looked like the home of a Colombian drug dealer in an action movie.

"Stupid," Aro said as we observed all of it. "This kind of showiness always leads to trouble. What? Do they think humans don't have airplanes? Idiocy. Guess they think secrecy was just some silly little game we invented to stop everyone from having fun . . ."

I laughed a little.

We couldn't see any guards in back or any other deadly creatures but that didn't mean there weren't any number of other defenses. I didn't like the idea of bringing Renesmee into a situation with so much unknown danger but if she was close, at least we could protect her personally. If these people had this, they probably had control of the city in innumerable ways as well and leaving them in a hotel with no real defenses was maybe just as dangerous.

"I wish we could get closer . . ."

"Do you think we should go over the wall for a second?"

He shook his head.

"I think one of us should stay out here and watch today though. Maybe get a sense of their movements. More information for tomorrow night."

"Okay. That sounds like a good idea. As long as you're not planning to go over alone . . ."

"The best chance I'll have to rescue him will be with your help, Isabella, I won't go over without you unless I see somewhere to directly intervene . . . in a case where I'm sure you would do the same."

"Okay, well, I guess we'll watch tonight and see what we see . . ."

He took out his phone and started taking pictures as we spent the night scouting around the perimeter. Aro took many photos and emailed them to Renesmee without explanation to me. She sent replies, displaying her always astonishing memory and impressive researching skills about the various images.

"She thinks those 'lions' might be chimeras. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I certainly hope that she is wrong . . ."

"What's that?"

"It's a fire-breathing goat-lion-snake creature."

Then we shared a moment of stress-crazed laughter at how ridiculous that sounded.

"Well it just looks like a lion to me . . ."

"Let's get closer . . ."

We leapt to the top of the wall and laid flat, waiting for one of them to get a little closer. It took a few minutes but one finally wandered into view. Once you looked closer you could see that although it had a lion's mane, the face it surrounded was not a lion's but a large, slightly flattened goat's. It turned and I saw that the end of its tail had two glittering red eyes hidden among the tuft of fur. A long, forked tongue slipped out for a second before retracting into a barely visible mouth. It was a far less hilarious creature in person.

"Are they immortal?"

"No. I think they're just like a regular animal . . ."

"Then it's no big deal . . . right?"

He turned to me with the kind of look you give to people you love when they've said something obviously stupid.

"Isabella, they _breathe fire_. And in case you've forgotten, we're a little bit—"

"Flammable. Shit. Sorry, I'm kind of dumb right now."

He patted my arm.

"No, you're just your father's daughter . . ."

* * *

END NOTES: The positioning of a chimera's goat head is traditionally rising from its back but for story purposes I needed them to think they were just lions at first because . . . um, drama! Also, it's a much scarier image. *shudder*

I'm a little emotionally unstable right now and that Aro and Bella hug gave me a lot of achy feels while editing it. I love my little weirdo family. *sniff*


	15. Here by Choice

**Charlie's POV**

I woke to Rosalie's face hovering over mine.

"Oh good, you're finally awake. I have some questions for you."

She said it like I had was a guest who had overslept at her house and made her late for work.

"Yeah, so do . . ."

I tried to move and found myself restrained but I didn't feel like I was being held down by anything physical. I concentrated on transforming just as a test. I had practiced while we were alone and could push on the power a little so that I could hover in the seconds before turning for a quick change if needed. Maybe it was the rest of Falstaff's poison but I couldn't do it even partially.

"I guess I will go with the cliche here and demand the location of the rest of your party," she said.

"I don't know. We were going to a hotel but your evil little friend there attacked me on the way."

"Evil? Wow, that's bold for you to say. I mean, I know Aro was keeping you against your will but you still _supported_ him."

"What? Aro isn't—"

"Oh, so you don't know. I wasn't sure if Chelsea's power revealed itself to the victim. Guess not. Sort of sad. Yes, Aro has had you as a slave for a very long time. He had to after he killed you wife of course . . ."

How did she know about Renee's death? They'd never even met . . .

"Aro didn't kill her, they were really close. He was at home with me when she died. It was an accident . . ."

"I'm sure that's what he told you. I actually feel kind of sorry you. But now you'll get to watch me kill him so that will probably feel pretty good for you."

"I understand that you would want him dead, Rosalie but believe me when I say that the Aro with us is not the same Aro you know. Don't you think Bella would have killed him already?"

"Bella's alive?"

Her voice softened.

"Yes. She's with us!"

"You're significantly lowering the chances that I'm not going to kill you. Bella wouldn't join you! And I saw you anyway. I know she isn't with you. Now why don't we see if you really don't know where they are, hmm?"

She nodded to someone off to the side and a terrible, agonizing heat began at my wrist and raked up my arm. I managed to turn my head and saw that a young woman was pressing what looked like a marker to my skin. I didn't understand the pain. I didn't know as much as Aro about vampires but I had thought there was nothing that could hurt us. He'd talked about technology that was strong enough to though and he was apparently right. The intense pain stopped but my arm continued to ache as my body struggled to heal.

"Now, do you know where they are?"

"No! Rosalie, why are you doing th—"

"Nope. Again, Helen. Maybe a word this time. How about _evil_. As long as we're throwing it around already . . ."

The fiery agony began again and smoldered over my flesh. It went on for minutes, hours, I couldn't hold onto time. When it stopped, I turned my head and saw that word carved into my arm, the cuts expelling small wisps of white smoke. I was too drunk with pain to continue arguing with her.

"Put him out Falstaff. I'm sure Aro will be along and then we can finish what my family failed to do and eradicate the Volturi filth from this earth forever."

Volturi. Why did she keep saying that? She'd obviously recognized me . . .

Then Falstaff's teeth on my arm, near the fresh burns and in seconds, darkness again.

* * *

**Aro's POV**

He'd taken my heart with him when he flew out that window. I couldn't even comprehend the pain. It was blinding. It was a punishment for what I had done to Didyme. I accepted that but I couldn't accept Charlie paying for it.

Bella had come back with Jacob and Renesmee just after sunset. Jacob arrived in his wolf form and I'll admit that in the haze of fear, I had completely forgotten about this power and immediately started to think of how it could aid us. This mission was so much more complicated than any I'd been involved in before. I had always been protective of my fellows but it was because they were valuable with the currency of power, now they were emotionally valuable. Renesmee to me and to Charlie. Bella to Charlie and so to me and Jacob to them all. We_ all_ had to survive this and since we hadn't come up with anything better than simply jumping over the wall and running, this was definitely the most deadly thing I had ever willing done.

"Jacob, how high can you jump?"

"He can make that wall," Renesmee answered, still sitting on his back.

"Good. Bella?"

"I'm ready."

"Let's do it."

The wall was at least thirty-five feet but also wide at the top like a fortress' outer structure. It made me a little nervous that there weren't patrols but I had been watching from various trees all day and had seen no one. That SUV had left just after sunrise and I'd considered following it but in the daylight it would have been foolish and it returned a few hours later. I'd glimpsed Benjamin again as he opened and shut the entrance and hoped his short friendship with the remaining Cullens might be useful once we were inside.

Bella joined me on the wall in an easy leap and we backed away to wait for Jacob. His landing was less graceful but Renesmee was still securely seated. She laughed and then put her hand over her mouth quickly. It made me more afraid. I felt a deep connection with her. The kind that made me nervous like with Charlie. It would be devastating to lose her. And I hoped Charlie would forgive me for bringing her here in the first place even if by some miracle we all lived.

We looked down together. We were exposed to an idiotic level standing up there. Two vampires, our pale skin practically glowing in the dark and a ten foot wolf with another brilliantly pale girl on its back! I jumped down before the weight of my own stupidity could stop me. I heard them land around me and we stood there for a minute, staring at the darkened grounds. There had been lights last night and it was so obvious we were walking into a trap that I almost felt like we _should_ just walk toward the door with our hands up and expedite the process of our capture.

"Spread out a little," Bella said.

"I saw a spot around the side that looked like it might be a basement or something . . ."

"We could go for the roof . . ."

"See, Renesmee? That's why you're here," I said. And I felt a probably misplaced pride in her, like I had anything to do with her magnificence other than recognizing its value.

We hadn't seen any of the chimera but we didn't get far before one came out of the dark. It didn't charge us, it paced, turning its head back and forth like a person cracking their neck.

"Confuse it?" Bella asked.

It looked right at us and shook its head in a very human way.

"Oh my God, Aro, does it understand us!?"

"I don't know . . . I've never met one."

It sat. Its snake-headed tail came around and paused under its chin like a person resting their head on their hand.

"Can it talk, Ness?"

The creature huffed and the evidence of its fiery power showed itself as two tiny wisps of smoke curled up from its nostrils.

"Are you an evil creature?"

Renesmee. I trusted her and stayed silent. I pinched Bella's arm to encourage her to do the same.

It turned its creepy, rectangle-pupiled gaze on her directly and tossed its mane. It seemed offended.

"If you are not, then you should not stand in our way. We are good people here to rescue a good man from something evil. Will you let us pass?"

It tapped the toes on one foot like a person drumming their fingers on a table.

"Are you here by choice?"

It nodded.

"Do you believe those you are protecting to be evil?"

It shook its head again.

"Are your masters human?"

It huffed again, emitting more smoke.

"Is your master the incubus known as Falstaff?"

Long, shining claws appeared and raked the ground creating deep gouges. It didn't like him. I felt hope. If we could get these creatures on our side . . .

"Is he here?" Bella asked.

It looked between us, like it was debating and then nodded minutely.

"We're his enemies, we're here to destroy him. We're not interested in hurting your masters as long as they release our family member."

It turned its head into the dark and made a strange and unsettling sound halfway between a goat's bleat and a lion's roar. In seconds more of them had come forward and joined our potential new ally. My nervousness returned. If they decided not to help us, we were surely doomed.

"Do you know the man being kept here?"

It shook its head.

"Do you know what he is?"

It didn't answer.

"Are you a friend to vampires?"

It seemed a risky question and I was hoping that she'd done some research and knew what to say.

Its tail flexed, the little eyes watching us as it moved. Finally it tilted its head back and forth in a non-committal gesture. Sometimes?

"Do you know any vampires?"

It eyed Bella and me and then nodded.

"Are there any other vampires here tonight?"

It shrugged. Its coyness was starting to anger me but I held back.

"Are your masters vampires?"

It didn't move at all. Even its tail halted in mid-swing, the little snake's head watching us upside down.

"Do they have red eyes?"

Its head didn't move but the tail did, sliding back and forth in an obvious "no" like it was a lesser betrayal than if the head had given it up.

"Are they gold?" Bella almost shouted and I kicked her sideways. She was a Cullen _and_ a Swan. You couldn't bring a worse person on a mission like this.

It tilted its head. Vegetarians.

"Then they are friends to us. Will you take us to them?"

It shook its head but also waved one paw and the the others parted making a path to the door. They were sending us in alone and I hoped that when whoever was in there saw we were unharmed they might listen to us long enough for us to unveil Falstaff's deception whatever it was because no vampire dedicated to a life of that kind of sacrifice would align themselves with him if they knew what he was.

It was frightening walking between them, waiting jets of flame ready on both sides that could kill us all in an instant if this was a trick. But they let us pass and when we reached the door, Renesmee jumped down and Jacob shrank back to his human size. Bella and Renesmee, used to this, turned away as he retrieved a set of clothing tied to his ankle. I was _not_ expecting it and was treated to a disturbingly unexpected view of his backside before I could turn away. Yet another reason to not have wolves around. At least _we_ all kept our clothes on in public.

It seemed silly to just knock but what else could we do? Bella stepped forward, maybe feeling like it was her duty to lead, we wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for her.

A human answered. The one who had been driving the car. He looked at us and then past to the yard at the docile chimera.

"Um . . ."

"We need to speak to the vampires that live here."

He looked too stunned to respond and just stepped back to let us in. He shut the door and just stared at us.

"We know Benjamin," Bella said. "If you get him, he'll vouch for us."

"Uh, my mistress . . ."

"Aaron, bring them upstairs."

We didn't see the speaker but they was female.

Aaron started for a large set of stairs and we followed him. He looked back multiple times and almost tripped once. He took us down a hallway to a set of double doors with gold accents. The whole house that we had seen so far was very well-decorated, rich. I made a note to compliment them on their taste if we didn't die.

He knocked and then backed away and literally ran off down the hallway. I hoped it was because he was afraid of _us_ and not his masters . . .

A small vampire girl who could have been in her mid-teens at her transformation opened the door. She did not look afraid of us and it could have been good or very bad.

"Come on, Angela, let them in. Let's be done with this."

That same female voice, annoyed now. I hadn't had a clear expectation of what we would find. I hoped only that we would find Charlie alive. We stepped into the room and I immediately smelled acrid, foul smoke in the air. Charlie was on the floor and he wasn't moving. I would have rushed to him but all of us were stopped by the same thing:

The incomprehensible identity of his kidnapper.

* * *

END NOTES: I've never really liked the "we need to go rescue someone from evil person's lair" storyline but the thing with the chimera was fun . . .


	16. Zia Rosa

**Rosalie's POV**

I almost lost my composure at having all of them in the same room finally. The room where I would end their millenia-old threat to humans and vampires alike.

Sulpicia gasped my name. I didn't even know that she knew who I was. Athenodora echoed her and actually started crying. Wait, crying? How was she crying?

Marcus was coming back around and I motioned for him to be restrained again. Falstaff came to my side and said, "Rosie," as though to remind me of our plan.

"Helen."

She stepped forward followed by her daughters both in life and as immortals. In unison they swept their hands in the air and all four of the Volturi members collapsed onto the carpet surrounded by glittering threads that trapped their limbs close to their bodies.

"We'll need to work fast," Falstaff reminded. "Never know what powers Aro could have been hiding all this time."

"I know. You're not in a place to command me in my own house, Falstaff."

He backed away, bowing to me obsequiously. I stepped over to their prone forms and looked down at them. It seemed cruel to punish the wives like this, people do stupid things for love and these two had spent years locked away in a tower by their husbands. Maybe I could keep them and discover their loyalties after Marcus and Aro were dead . . .

I grabbed Aro by his hair and dragged him to the center of the room. Helen's daughters' powers held him immobile and speechless and he could only watch me. He looked terrified and I felt the same perverse joy I'd felt seeing Royce's face look similarly before I'd dispatched him.

"Let's see, should I kill you _first_ Aro or do you care about your wife and brother enough that it would be worth it to force you to watch them die?" His fear turned to confusion and then desperation. So he did care. Good.

"Oh lovely. Now, do you value your wife more or your brother . . .?"

His confusion increased and I didn't understand it.

"Guess we'll just go for your wife. Marcus has been with you longer and you _murdered_ your own flesh and blood to keep him so I'm going to say you love him more. Or at least wanted to _own_ him more so we'll make that a finale."

The confusion melted into pain. I put my boot on his face so I could turn his head to the side and then motioned to them to bring Sulpicia forward. Julian brought her and forced her to her knees. She also looked baffled and so sad and afraid I almost reconsidered my decision to kill her. It wasn't her fault . . .

I made sure Aro could see and then placed my hands on either side of her face. I decided to do it slowly. Might as well give Aro a show.

"Sorry, sweetie. You just married the wrong man."

I twisted slowly, watching Aro and not her and heard the sickening creak of her skin tearing and then another sound interrupted. A voice that said, "Zia Rosa."

_Aunt Rose._

I turned and saw on the floor not Athenodora and Felix but _my niece_ and her dog protector, Jacob Black. I looked down and found I was holding Bella's face. Her head was ready to come free in my hands and I froze, afraid if I moved it would come off completely.

"Helen, let them all go except for the one I'm holding."

I heard a heavy sigh and turned to where Falstaff was standing. Only it wasn't him either. It was some terrifying apparition so startling I almost let go of Bella. His dark hair was gone, replaced by a halo of soft white tresses that seemed to move as though in a breeze that didn't exist in the room. His innocuous little face had morphed into something nightmare-like. His eyes were purple, nothing like Emmett's at all. He smirked at me, walked to the window and smashed through the glass with his bare hand.

"Maybe someday, Aro," he called back. "So very close . . . and maybe you'll remember this next time you try to interfere with me. Your husband's new adornments should be an adequate reminder, I think."

Then he popped into his bird form and vanished into the night.

I turned my head and saw that Aro was still Aro and he was kneeling over where Marcus had been. Only it wasn't Marcus. It was a beautiful silver-haired vampire I had never seen before.

Aro turned his head.

"She'll be all right in a few minutes, just hold onto her until she can speak."

I looked down at Bella and she smiled sadly and closed her eyes to wait.

* * *

**Charlie's POV**

Aro hadn't let go of me since our release. If we were walking, he was holding my hand or my arm, if we were sitting, his arms were around my waist or neck. We were seated at a large table now, while Jacob and Renesmee and the other humans in the house ate breakfast. I had managed to stop Aro from climbing into my lap and instead he sat next to me, holding my hand tightly and occasionally laying his head on my shoulder. He kept touching the new scars on my arms. They were lighter than they were a few hours ago but I felt like if they were going to heal, they would have already. I made him stop each time.

"Hey, at least they didn't touch my face, right?"

I think if he could have cried, he would have. I had tried being comforting but each time he just shook his head without speaking. I hoped he wasn't going to punish himself for this forever.

Renesmee and Bella had a nice reunion with Benjamin who I was meeting for the first time.

Rosalie just seemed overwhelmed to the point of near frostiness but I didn't know her enough to know if that was unusual. I couldn't tell which part of our story was most shocking to her: me being a vampire, Aro being with us, or us being married. I was pleased when Bella was the one to defend Aro to our hosts and I think Aro's silence and obvious current fragility helped.

Rosalie looked me over more than once and I would have been proud of Aro for not being jealous if it hadn't been because he was too upset to notice. The feelings coming from him were overpoweringly guilty and still somehow terrified even though we were all safe, like he thought I might just burst into flames at any moment if he let go.

We explained Falstaff's powers to them and Aro quietly explained that Falstaff had cast a glamor on Rosalie and likely anyone in the house who would have recognized the real us so they simply saw us as the people she'd told us she saw. Bella said she'd been trying to protect us with her shield but it did nothing against the power of Helen's daughters and so she desperately cast her shield over Rosalie instead and it cut off his influence, breaking the glamor. Rosalie asked Nessie how she had spoken and everyone else looked confused. Renesmee smiled. She hadn't spoken out loud. She'd been slowly developing the ability to send messages over short distances for the last year or so. No one there knew about it, not even Jacob.

"What? I'm technically a teenage girl and I'm followed around by my mom everywhere I go! I should get secrets. Guess I'll have to find some new ones now though . . ."

I had seen her looking at the human boy, Aaron, who had driven the car during my kidnapping. Jacob seemed oblivious to this and I wasn't sure what the exact nature of his imprint was but I assumed at that point that it wasn't romantic.

It was well after our meal, when everyone who needed sleep had gone to bed, that we finally discussed the battle. Bella took the lead for our group and I was grateful because I didn't think Aro could talk about it the way he was right then.

Rosalie said that people started to scatter near the end and many vampires ran off into the woods. She and Benjamin met up only a few weeks later in the city and they had also seen Vladimir alone in Canada a year later but not since. Bella asked her who was left at the end, I knew she was hoping for some news of Edward, but Rosalie didn't name him. She said some of the people Aro had said he'd found and burned. It was awful to watch her hope about him being alive collapse a little more.

Aro didn't speak at all for three days after that, he just followed me around like we were literally attached to each other. I tried to tell him everything was okay now but I think having all the people close to him come so close to dying again was too much. And he blamed himself for it again because of Falstaff.

I wasn't nearly as shell-shocked as he was even after being held down and burned by that electric scalpel and I had to force myself to be respectful of his grief and not attack him and pull his clothes off eight times a day. It was worse because he was attractive in this really morbid way when he was sad. I waited until the day he spoke again for the first time.

We'd gone hunting that morning and when we got back he said he thought he would recruit Renesmee to help him study those lion-creatures. I told him they could have fun with that on their own, I wasn't really that into supernatural monsters. I nudged him while I said it and he'd smiled for the first time.

I pulled him into the first room we came to. It was a sort of small study, extremely expensively decorated like everything else. I shut the door and pushed him against the wall, kissing him roughly. He responded eagerly and we we undressed quickly.

I was a little less strong than I was seven months earlier but he was still smaller than me and I lifted him easily, pulling his legs around me. The wall was covered in solid wood paneling that I thought could handle our weight if we were careful. He made a noise louder than he probably should have when I entered him. I suppressed my own sound, knowing I wouldn't be able to control the volume if I let it out. It had only been maybe a week since we'd been together but it was long enough to make the experience feel new and exciting. I was maybe rougher than I should have been but he didn't complain and I think he probably identified with my desperation a little bit.

We stayed in there pretty much all day. When we went back downstairs we found most of our party sitting in a living room area watching TV. I thought we had been fairly quiet but the awkwardness that immediately settled on the room told me it hadn't been quiet enough for a house full of vampires.

"And now you know what it's been like traveling with them for seven months . . ." Bella said, grumpily.

Rosalie looked me over for a second, then smirked at Aro and shrugged. Bella made a disgusted sound and left the room in a huff.

It had been an awkward adjustment to go from being fairly average to unnaturally attractive and I had laughed a little bit the first few times we'd encountered swoony women and some men as well. I was oblivious enough that I might not have even noticed that these reactions were to me if it wasn't for Aro's annoyance and jealousy. He usually just brooded silently when this happened but one time he'd actually hissed at a girl like an angry cat when she'd tried to touch me.

I sat as far from Rosalie as possible. Aro sat next to me and put his legs across my lap.

They were watching a sitcom I didn't recognize. Aro put his head on my shoulder and sighed. I'd known he'd just wanted to go home so badly and now that Bella had seen exactly how dangerous it was trying to track down Falstaff, we were free to settle down without worrying she'd want to pick her quest up again. This was the most normal and relaxed we'd been since leaving Forks. Aro wasn't even watching the TV he just had his eyes closed and was smiling very slightly.

"Boring enough for you?" I asked.

"It'll do."

~FIN~

* * *

END NOTES: I know, _lots of unanswered questions_. I'm hoping I can twist this into a trilogy but I don't know when that will happen. Epilogue soon.


	17. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

**Aro's POV**

We stayed with Rosalie Cullen for a year before I "gently" insisted on moving out. Being in such a rich setting with so many other vampires around reminded me of Volterra and while Rosalie thought her little regime was nothing like ours, I chose to not tell her just how similar they were to the Volturi in the beginning. Trying to govern anything as vast as an entire race of supernatural beings—and she'd gone so far as to include other beings—eventually leads to doing things you never would have believed you would do in an attempt to keep everybody safe if not happy. Aside from my personal ambition, we made it possible for every vampire living now to continue to exist by modeling the behavior necessary for our ultimate survival in a modern world.

But it wasn't my business anymore. I just wanted my life with Charlie. We didn't go far, we just found an apartment in the city away from them. We investigated a few but I already knew I wanted the first one we looked at. It was perfect, simple. As far from my former life as I could get. More like our home in Forks only smaller. The second floor of a little building in a quaint part of town. It had a moderately-sized living room whose windows overlooked the street below. There was a tiny kitchen which the realtor tried to exaggerate a little knowing it would likely be a drawback for most people. The bedroom was plain and comfortable and there was a stand alone claw-foot bathtub that became a shower when you pulled the curtain around it.

But my favorite thing, and I couldn't have explained why, were the smells that rose up from the floor below when the little bakery there made its wares. I knew immediately that it was my new home. I felt like it always had been, like it had been built and was sitting vacant for us, waiting. Bella had a similarly strong reaction to it. She said it was "special" and we shared an odd look, standing across the bedroom from each other, like we were both trying to remember something we'd forgotten. She never came there again after helping us move in, she said it scared her a little bit, like it was haunted.

But it was home to me and we stayed there as long as we thought we could get away with it, buying the building when we left so we could return after enough time had passed.

We moved around like this every ten or fifteen years, staying with Rosalie in between those each time. We tried to avoid the "adventures" that seemed to follow Bella and Jacob around like a curse but couldn't always dodge them completely and sometimes they were fun enough to be worth the trouble. And it was fascinating to be part of a family bound together out of love rather than need or obligation.

Melany called a few years after we settled in Baltimore the first time and said she had been diagnosed with lupus. She became a missing person later that week and was completely content to move into Rosalie's for her transformation. She said that living in a house full of vampires whose grounds were patrolled by mythological lion creatures was, "the best Make-a-Wish ever." She wasn't much of a newborn in terms of ferocity. She sat around alternately reading and interrogating the various members of the house about their lives. Benjamin in particular who I think she would have tried to marry if he were older.

We visited Volterra fifty years after the battle in Forks and found that the castle had actually been torn down. The locals said there was a fire and the only thing left standing was the clock tower in the square, its hands frozen halfway between three o' clock and four. I was surprised to find that I only felt a vague sadness at finding it all gone. Among the rubble I retrieved a few small items I knew were hidden in secret vaults but I left most of it, letting the trap doors shut on my rooms of ancient treasures, sealing away priceless paintings and jewelry and archaic human weaponry. They were tombs now for my first family whose grave was a field in a faraway forest.

We returned to Forks, to our first home together, seventy-two years after we'd left. We met with the current head of the Quileute to explain our presence and our adherence to the terms of the Cullen treaty.

On our hundredth anniversary, we decided to take the honeymoon we'd never had and, with Rosalie and Bella's permission, we took a boat to Isle Esme and spent a decade in the sun, swimming in clear blue waters and making love on white sand beaches and watching the sunset from the highest branches of tropical trees.

It was a life better than any I ever would have imagined for myself and one I would have likely scoffed at before and I was grateful fate was less stupid than I was and kind enough to force this sweet, impossible existence on me.

And secretly, I waited with a black dread for the day Falstaff would return, not just to play his silly tricks on me but with revenge in his heart and the goal of destroying the things I loved. I spoke only to Bella about this and every time we met, we pooled the research which we gathered independently unbeknownst to the others because we knew that the next time, our encounter with him would only end with his death.

Or ours.

* * *

END NOTES: Sorry for the delay. Lots happening in the real world place. Because of the rushed posting and scant editing, there were a lot of things which were unclear so I've made a little guide explaining some things that might have been confusing. I am planning a third story but it looks pretty far out into the future just now. I'll probably be editing/posting my Aro/Ness fic next and then trying to focus on More Than You Needed.

Falstaff: I will be getting into his origin story more in the sequel but for now, this is how he works. He also operates on a type of "venom" similar to vampire venom, only purple and with the ability to incapacitate humans and possibly other vampires. I'm trying to decide if his venom would work on all vampires or just Charlie since he was bitten by him as a human and had Falstaff's poison in his during his transformation. Falstaff is able to become a raven, transform into a type of female (enough to gather semen from human males;s when he is a male, the human semen he has collected is mixed with his venom as he has no reproductive abilities himself as either sex.)

Charlie: He has dual powers as a vampire. One is a result of vampire venom. He is able to perceive and interpret other people's emotions and intentions based on his years of learning to do this in life as a cop. His other powers are a result of having Falstaff's poison present at the time of his transformation. He can transform at will into a large white dove. I'm still debating about if he will also share Falstaff's other abilities, possibly a mirror to his poison which allows him to make people stronger for a short time or turn them into birds. That's a little far and will be worked out in the sequel.

Rosalie: Alive, obviously. She heads an organization similar to the Volturi although less far-reaching covering (at the time of the last chapter) only North America. She has a partner, Julian, who she met shortly after arriving in Baltimore. He was already a vampire but not a vegetarian at that time.

When she meets Falstaff, he adopts an appearance which will make her trust him by using his glamor ability and giving himself Emmett's eyes which he "learned" from photographs left at the Cullen's house in Forks. Although she doesn't know it, Leah encountered him multiple times in disguise during which he learned the details of the Forks battle.

Falstaff casts another glamor on Rose to make her see our heroes as members of the Volturi. He chose those specific people for their body types and genders as his glamor only covers physical appearance and not voices or dramatically different physical size and weight. Felix is big like Jacob. Sulpicia and Athena are small females like Bella and Ness. And Marcus is taller than Aro.

Helen: She is a vampire created by Rosalie. She has two daughters (Ariel (15) and Lauren (18)) who she changed after herself to protect them from her abusive husband. Ariel and Lauren have the ability to bind people both physically and verbally. They all must be in fairly close proximity for their powers to operate correctly. it is unknown what would happen to their powers if one of them were killed.

The thing used to burn Charlie is the cautery scalpel already seen in More Than You Needed. Those who have read As You Wish already know the significance of the Baltimore apartment. If you haven't read it, guess you'd better.

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If you have any more questions, feel free to message me or use my "ask" on tumblr if you don't have an account where I can respond to you on here. The tumblr is "Pretty Fake Faces." Thank you for reading, thank you for reviewing. You all are very wonderful.


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